Thermodynamics And Electrochemical Characterization Of Core-shell Type Gold-coated Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

In continuation to our previous work, the superparamagnetic Fe3O4@Au core-shell type nanoparticles (NPs) were further characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), electrical conductivity, impedance and cyclic voltammetry measurements. From the analysis of DSC and TGA results with our Fe3O4@Au NPs of about 6.25 ± 0.6 nm size, we observed a clear endothermic peak at 310°C due to the decomposition of the oleic acid/oleylamine surface ligands and the particles found to contain more than 80% of the metallic content from the mixed compositions of gold and iron oxide were observed. Because of the conduction through the Fe3O4@Au grain, the impedance profile of the pellet exhibited a well-resolved semi-circle and an inclined spike in a far low-frequency region. The electrical conductivity of the Fe3O4@Au material found to be increased with an increase of temperature. The standard Gibbs free energy (ΔG) of the reaction provided a criterion for spont