Synthesis of functionalized Co_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄ nanoparticles for biomedical applications

In this paper, we report a simple one step method for the synthesis of uniform, water dispersible amine functionalized Co_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄ nanoparticles (AF-CZF) of size about 6 nm. The synthesis process was accomplished by refluxing Fe(acac)₃, Co(acac)₂ and Zn(acac)₂ in diethylene glycol and ethanolamine. The magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, TGDTA, FTIR, SEM and TEM techniques. Their magnetic properties were also studied by using SQUID. The synthesized particles show superparamagnetism at room temperature. AF-CZF nanoparticles exhibit good cell viability, which is above 95% at a concentration of 80 µg mL⁻¹ on MCF7 cell line. The AF-CZF can be a new versatile platform for many interesting biomedical applications. - Highlights: • The amine functionalized CZF (AF-CZF) was obtained in one step. • Prepared MNPs exhibit superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature. • SRB assay reveals that prepared nanoparticles are biocompatible. • The AF-CZF can be a new platform for many biomedical applications