Multimodal magnetic nanostructures

Abstract

The objectives of this thesis are to develop new iron oxide and cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) based nanocomposites and their fluorescent-magnetic derivatives with a range of potential biomedical applications. The major aims are: (i) to prepare magnetic iron oxide based nanoparticles and nanocomposites by co-precipitation techniques using Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and various polyelectrolytes as stabilisers; (ii) produce new stable magnetic fluids based on functionalised iron oxide nanoparticles for Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other potential biomedical applications; (iii) to develop new "two-in-one" fluorescent/magnetic nanocomposites using magnetic nanoparticles and fluorescent dyes or Quantum dots (QDs) for intracellular visualisation, manipulation and diagnostics; (iv) to characterise the nanoparticles, nanocomposites, and magnetic fluids fully using different instrumental techniques (e.g. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman, Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Photon Con-elation Spectroscopy (PCS), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Dispersion (NMRD), magnetisation measurements (SQUID).