Nanocomposites and nanomaterials

Synthesis and study of hybrid nanostructures
  based on nanoparticles of precious metals 
and magnetic nanoparticles
Andrii Kusyak1, Mariia Galaburda1, Vladimir Gun'ko1

1Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 03164 Kyiv, Ukraine
E-mail: a_kusyak@ukr.net

The development of hybrid composite structures based on nanoparticles of precious metals and magnetic nanoparticles is currently one of the highest priorities in the development of nanomedicine. Such structures exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance, which makes them convenient in creating sensor materials for use in biomedical purposes.
Nanodispersed magnetite (Fe3O4), which was synthesized by the Elmore reaction, was used as a magnetically sensitive component of the synthesized nanocomposites. Both nanoparticles of the original Fe3O4 [1] and functionalized thiol groups [2] were used for the synthesis of composite nanoparticles consisting of gold and magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4/Au). 
The synthesized samples were examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thin-film X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), SBET surface area and pore size distribution (PSD) were also determined. Particles size-distributions were plotted based on photon cross-correlation spectroscopy (PCCS) analysis for water suspension materials. To indicate the stability of particle suspensions, the zeta potential of the particles was measured with a laser Doppler electrophoresis (LDE) instrument.
Acknowledgements: This work is carried out within the framework of the NATO project G5798 (A Novel Nanoparticle Based Real-Time Sensor for B. Anthracis and M. Tuberculosis (NanoSat)). 

1.	Zhao, X. et al. (2008). Preparation of Alkanethiolate-Functionalized Core/Shell Fe3O4@Au Nanoparticles and Its Interaction with Several Typical Target Molecules. Analytical Chemistry, 80(23), 9091–9096. 
2.	Cha, Y.-J. et al. (2010). Synthesis and Characterizations of Surface-Coated Superparamagentic Magnetite Nanoparticles. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 46(2), 443–446.