Ferrogels for potential use as drug delivery device

JIMENA GONZÁLEZ; JUAN MORÁN; VERA ALVAREZ

San Sebastián

Congreso; 11th European Symposium on Polymer Blends,; 2012

Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) ferrogels were easily obtained through a one-pot technique that involves co-precipitation of iron salts in presence of a PVA solution, followed by freezing-thawing cycles of the resulting NPs dispersions. The protecting effect of PVA enabled the synthesis of small magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) that did not agglomerate in the initial solution allowing the synthesis of well-dispersed ferrogels by physical crosslinking. Physical properties of the physically crosslinked ferrogels, as swelling ability, melting temperature and crystallinity, were barely affected by the presence of NPs, presenting similar or improved values when compared with chemically crosslinked systems. Ferrogels showed superparamagnetic properties at room temperature that combined with the absence of toxic residues arising from crosslinking agents make them ideal candidates for their use in biomedical applications (artificial muscles, drug delivery and sensors among thers).