Synthesis and fabrication of Fe₃O₄/SiO₂/Agarose/Fe³⁺ magnetic nanoparticle and its application in drug delivery: Metformin approach

In this study Fe₃O₄/SiO₂/Agarose/Fe³⁺ magnetic nanoparticle was synthesized based on a simple co-precipitation technique and applied for the drug delivery approach. The modified magnetic nanoparticles were characterized with some techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The magnetic nanoparticles size was less than 17nm and applied as carrier for metformin. In the achieved optimum conditions at pH = 9, time = 5 min, temperature = 20°C and 5ml adsorbent, a high loading capacity of (41.4mg g^-1) was obtained for a 1000mg L^-1 solution of metformin. The short adsorption time indicates the rapid uptake of the drug onto the nanoparticle carrier. Up to 52% of the drug was loaded on the carrier under the optimal conditions. The method has relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 11.8% (n=10). The proposed method has been successfully applied as a carrier of Metformin.