Thermogravimetric Study of the Decomposition of BSA-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles used in biomedicine have to be biocompatible, which can be achieved by the modification of the magnetic particle surface with an appropriate biocompatible substance. In the work protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) was chosen to modify the surface of magnetic nanoparticles. The BSA-coated magnetic nanoparticles with different input weight ratios of BSA to the magnetite $Fe_3O_4$ were prepared and thermally characterized using thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetric analysis. The adsorption of BSA on the magnetic nanoparticles in wide range of concentration was confirmed. The activation energies of the thermal decomposition of the complex system were estimated.