One-pot green synthesis of biocompatible arginine-stabilized magnetic nanoparticles

A green one-step approach has been developed for the synthesis of amino-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles. The synthesis was accomplished by simply mixing FeCl2 with arginine under ambient conditions. It was found that the Fe2+/arginine molar ratio, reaction duration and temperature greatly influence the size, morphology and composition of magnetic nanoparticles. The arginine-stabilized magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques. The results show that the prepared nanoparticles are spherically shaped with a nearly uniform size distribution and pure magnetite phase. The presence of arginine on the magnetic nanoparticle surface has been confirmed and the amount of surface arginine varies with the Fe2+/arginine molar ratio. The surface amine densities are calculated to be 5.60 and 7.84 μmol mg-1 for magnetic nanoparticles prepared at 1:1 and 1:2 Fe2+/arginine molar ratio, respectively. The as-synthesized nanoparticles show superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature and good solubility in water. In addition, using a similar synthesis procedure, we have been able to synthesize superparamagnetic manganese and cobalt ferrite nanoparticles.