Synthesis of Temperature Responsive Core-Shell Magnetic Nanoparticles Via Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Magnetic nanoparticles have been widely studied for various applications in medicine, environmental remediation, etc. The controlled functionalization of these particles is key for successful application. In this work, research was completed to investigate the effect of coating Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles with a hydrogel shell consisting of the temperature responsive material N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) with a novel hydrophobic crosslinker curcumin multiacrylate (CMA). NIPAAm-co-CMA core-shell nanoparticles were synthesized through surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). A kinetic study was conducted to test the effect of reaction time on coating thickness. The resulting particles were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). DLS was used to analyze the thermo-modulated changes in particle size, TGA was used to analyze the extent of polymer loading, and FTIR was used to identify functional groups.