Maghemite nanoparticles and method for preparing thereof

Among the numerous chemical methods reported in literature and currently used to synthesize magnetic nanoparticles for medical imaging applications the following can be found: microemulsion technology, sol-gel syntheses, sonochemical reactions, hydrothermal reactions, hydrolysis and thermolysis of iron complex precursors, flow injection syntheses and electrospray syntheses (Laurent, 2008). The synthesis of superparamagnetic nanoparticles is a complex process because of their colloidal nature. The first main chemical challenge consists of defining experimental conditions, leading to a monodisperse population of magnetic grains of suitable size. The second critical point is to select a reproducible process that can be industrialized without any complex purification procedure, such as ultracentrifugation, size-exclusion chromatography, magnetic filtration, or flow field gradient. A novel procedure to synthesize homogeneous maghemite based (γ-Fe2O3) superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles is proposed.