Polyvinylpyrrolidone-grafted Gadolinium Cations Doped Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications: One-step Cathodic Electrochemical Synthesis and Characterization

In this paper, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIOs) of controlled size distribution were electrochemically fabricated through applying typical galvanostatic deposition conditions from dissolved iron(II) chloride, iron(III) nitrate, Gd(III) chloride salts in aqueous media. The produced deposit was MIOs doped with ~19% Gd3+ cations (i.e. Gd-MIOs). In situ surface grafting of the deposited Gd-MIOs with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP/Gd-MIOs) polymer was also achieved through only addition of PVP into the deposition bath without using any supporting electrolyte. The presence of PVP-grafted layer onto the Gd-MIOs surface was supported via EDS and FTIR data. The magnetic evolution results indicated that the prepared PVP/Gd-MIOs powder has all the magnetic qualification requirements and hence could be a potential candidate for use in bio-medicine.