Comparative investigations on ferrite nanocomposites for magnetic hyperthermia applications

HRTEM of magnetite sample (C) together with the thermal image in the magnetic field. [Display omitted] •Successful preparation of PEGylated SPIONS using 2 simple methods.•Magnetic properties were strongly dependent on crystal size.•The obtained SAR value for the sample is 238 W/g. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared using different approaches: co-precipitation and sonochemical methods. This article is a comparative study on how different synthesis techniques greatly affect the magnetic properties and heating efficiency of such nanomaterial. Another important issue addressed here is the correlation between microstructure, colloidal stability, magnetization and specific absorption rate (SAR) of the nanoparticles. The results reveal that the sonochemical method for polyethylene glycol (PEGylated) Fe3O4 with size 5 nm leads to pseudo single domain with smallest loop area. Additionally, large SAR values are obtained within 10–15 min using low magnetic field.