Deciphering the parameters to produce highly reproducible and scalable iron oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanomedicine has been long hailed as a game changer for treating several ailments, but its translation from bench to bedside is facing some hurdles. Over the past few decades, there have been a plethora of reports regarding the synthesis of nanomaterials and, in particular, of iron oxide nanoparticles. However, very few reports discuss the role of stirring speed, reproducibility, and scalability. This work attempts to comprehensively revisit the most widely used existing protocols and discuss how the particle size or shape varies when certain parameters are altered and different precursors and solvents are used. It also discusses the probability of reproducing and scaling up the reactions while deciphering the effect of the ramp rate on size and shape. Lastly, it upgrades the existing methods and suggests a modification to produce highly reproducible and scalable nanoparticles of ∼4 nm, which can be further tuned to ∼2 nm by merely modifying the stirring speed.