Synthesis of Fe3O4/hesperetin compound

The purpose of this work is to modify hesperetin on nanoparticles of Fe₃O₄ to form a compound of Fe₃O₄/hesperetin, where hesperetin is drug and the Fe₃O₄ is carrier. The particles of Fe₃O₄ were synthesized by co-precipitation of Fe (III) and Fe (II) with sodium hydroxide. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study the types of the synthesized iron oxide particles. The XRD pattern confirmed that the synthesized particles are mainly Fe₃O₄. Scanning electron microscopy shows the particle size of Fe₃O₄ is about 14 nm on average. The Fe₃O₄/hesperetin compound was synthesized by mixing hesperetin and the Fe₃O₄ nano-particles in phosphate buffer solution with the cross-linking agents of EDC and NHS. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy proved that hesperetin is linked with the Fe₃O₄ nano-particles. Thermal gravimetric analysis demonstrates that the weight ratio of hesperetin with respect to the Fe₃O₄/hesperetin compound is about 23.7%. The measured thermal changes of the Fe₃O₄ nano-particles and the Fe₃O₄/hesperetin compound by radio frequency exposure for 60 minutes are 2.3 and 6.5°C, respectively.