A statistical approach to control particle size of poly(acrylic acid) stabilized iron oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Poly(acrylic acid) coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were prepared in aqueous solutions of iron salts with in situ coating of poly(acrylic acid). Influence of reaction variables, namely, iron concentration, reactive(COOH)/iron mole ratio, base (NH4OH) amount and polymer molecular weight, primarily on hydrodynamic size and stability of the particles was investigated. Also, size and stability of washed particles (no excess coating material) and magnetization as a function of these variables were studied. In order to design best set of experiments and correlate the results to variables, statistics programs Design Expert 7.0 and Minitab14 were used. Results will be discussed in this paper.