Attachment of Gold Nanograins onto Colloidal Magnetite Nanocrystals

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The successful attachment of 2−3 nm gold particles to ∼10 nm Fe 3 O 4 nanocrystals through a simple, two-step chemically controlled procedure is reported. The surface of individual, relatively monodisperse, Fe 3 O 4 nanospheres forming a stable colloidal methanolic solution is coated with an amino-terminated silane, peptized to induce positive charges on the particles' surfaces and then treated with a colloidal solution of negatively charged Au nanoparticles. A detailed investigation by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV−vis, inductively coupled plasma, and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry was performed in order to elucidate the morphology and properties of the nanocomposites. Due to their low concentration and small size of the attached Au particles, the optical properties are not observable in the case of the Fe 3 O 4 /Au nanocomposites. Additionally, the colloidal Fe 3 O 4 /Au nanocomposites are highly stable against separation and exhibit magnetic properties similar to those of the parent Fe 3 O 4 nanocrystals. These novel nanoarchitectures open up new opportunities for the use of magnetite nanoparticles for in-vivo biomedical applications through chemical bonding of bioactive molecules to the attached Au nanoparticles.