Magnetic Behavior of O-Carboxymethylchitosan Bounded With Iron Oxide Particles

Two magnetic chitosan derivatives of O-carboxymethylchitosan bounded with iron oxide particles have been prepared by in situ coprecipitation and incorporation methods. The investigations were focused on structural and magnetic aspects-morphology of iron oxide particles and overall magnetic behavior of these two magnetic chitosan microspheres. It has been shown that the magnetic properties of the sample prepared by the incorporation method are roughly the same as those of a powder of ?-Fe₂O₃/Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and both are dominated by strong magnetostatic interparticle interactions. In turn, the sample prepared by the in situ method is more susceptible to the temperature increase (resulted in predominant superparamagnetic behavior at 300 K) which is related to smaller particle sizes and better separation of particles with chitosan molecules.