MECHANIK 2/2015

MAGNETIC NANOCOMPOSITES FOR BIOMEDICAL

APPLICATIONS
NANOKOMPOZYTY MAGNETYCZNE DO ZASTOSOWA
BIOMEDYCZNYCH
Marta IZYDORZAK-WONIAK1, Marcin LEONOWICZ1
Abstract: Magnetic carbon nanocomposites (MCNCs), with different constitution and
fractions of magnetic component, were fabricated by the pyrolysis of the polymeric precursor.
X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy revealed the
presence of nanocrystallites (NCs) of Co, Fe3C and Ni embedded in porous, partially
graphitized carbon matrix. Vibrating sample magnetometer measurements enabled to
determine the correlation between NCs size distribution and magnetic properties.
The magnetic studies confirmed that the coercivity, saturation and remanent magnetizations,
as well as fraction of the magnetic component depend on the pyrolysis temperature. The
Co#C and Fe3C#C composites exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour with a remanent to
saturation magnetization (MR/MS) ratio ranging from 0.25 to 0.3, whereas in the Ni
containing samples a relatively small MR/MS ratio points to significant contribution of
superparamagnetic interactions.
The Ni#C composites, having superparamagnetic and/or ferromagnetic nanocrystallites in
their volume, were chosen to check the ability of heat generation in a magnetic field. It was
found that the hysteresis losses were the main mechanism of heat generation. The MCNCs
obtained can potentially be applied for hyperthermia treatment.
As the MCNCs are proposed for biomedical application the basic cytotoxicity test were
performed to evaluate a potential toxic effect of the materials on MG-63 cells line. The test
results confirmed that the composites containing Fe 3C are non-cytotoxic whereas the majority
of the Ni#C and Co#C composites was characterized as slightly or moderately cytotoxic.
Keywords: magnetic carbon nanocomposite, magnetic properties, pyrolysis, cytotoxicity,
biomedicine
Streszczenie: Magnetyczne nanokompozyty o osnowie wglowej (MCNCs), zawierajce
rn zawarto i budow fazow metalicznego komponentu, zostay wytworzone poprzez
piroliz polimerowego prekursora. Dyfrakcja rentgenowska, transmisyjna mikroskopia
1

Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, ul. Wooska 141, 02-507
Warsaw, Poland

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elektronowa i spektroskopia Ramana wykazay obecno nanokrystalitw (NCs) Co, Fe3C

i Ni umiejscowionych w porowatej, czciowo zgrafityzowanej wglowej osnowie. Badania
waciwoci magnetycznych potwierdziy, e koercja, namagnesowanie nasycenia
i remanencja oraz zawarto magnetycznego komponentu zale od temperatury pirolizy.
Kompozyty Co#C i Fe3C#C wykazuj waciwoci ferromagnetyczne, ze stosunkiem
remanencji do namagnesowania nasycenia (MR/MS) w zakresie 0,25 0,3, podczas gdy dla
kompozytw zawierajcych Ni stosunek MR/MS wskazuje na znaczcy wkad od oddziaywa
superparamagnetycznych. Kompozyty Ni#C, zawierajce nanokrystality ferromagnetyczne
lub superparamagnetyczne zostay wybrane do zbadania zdolnoci do generowania ciepa
w zmiennym polu magnetycznym. Stwierdzono, e straty na histerez odgrywaj decydujc
role w generowaniu ciepa. Wytworzone MCNCs mog zatem by potencjalnie stosowane
w hipertermii.
Badania cytotoksycznoci, przeprowadzone z zastosowaniem linii komrkowej MG-63
wykazay, e kompozyty zawierajce Fe3C s nietoksyczne, natomiast wikszo
kompozytw Ni#B and Co#C mona okreli jako mao lub umiarkowanie toksyczne.
Sowa kluczowe: nanokompozyt magnetyczny, waciwoci magnetyczne, piroliza,
cytotoksyczno, biomedycyna
1. INTRODUCTION
Magnetic carbon nanocomposites (MCNCs) become increasingly more popular in many
applications, including biomedicine, where carbon matrix protects nanocrystallites from
corrosion and potential toxic side effects. It might turn out particularly useful for biomedical
in vivo applications in diagnostic applications such as MRI [1] and therapies such as sitespecific drug delivery [2,3] and magnetic particle hyperthermia [4,5]. MCNCs, in a form of
microparticles (or microspheres), with embedded magnetic cores are especially proposed for
in vitro applications [6,7] e.g. magnetic bioseparation. Due to the interaction of microparticles
with an external magnetic field, the separation procedure is much faster, easier and cheaper,
since the time consuming stages of filtration and centrifuging can be avoided. Nevertheless, it
was also reported that carbon microparticles of size in the range 0.55 m may potentially be
used for in vivo applications e.g. chemotherapy [2,8]. In this case other routes of
administration to targeted place are required including intra-arterial administration [2] or
catheterization [3,8,9]. The latter method is based on the placement of magnetic
microparticles in the blood vessel, which feeds the tumour and subsequently their
transportation by a magnetic field forces into the cancer cells. There are no obstacles to use
the same material, not only to transport the drug to the desirable place, but also for moderate
hyperthermia. In such a case, cancer cells are weakened by applying a higher temperature in
the range of 4146C [10]. In a consequence, the cells undergoing heat stress are much more
prone to a medication therapy. The combination of both, hyperthermia-based therapy and
controlled drug delivery, supply an extremely powerful and efficient tool in the fight against
tumours and other diseases.
In this work, carbon matrix magnetic nanocomposites, in a form of mesoporous powder
particles with embedded cobalt, iron carbide and nickel nanocrystallites were synthesized by
pyrolysis of polymers containing metal atoms and characterized.

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2. EXPERIMENTAL
For synthesis of the carbon composites, built-up of Fe3C, Co and Ni nanocrystallites
embedded in a carbon matrix (later called Fe3C#C, Co#C and Ni#C nanocomposites,
respectively), a 3-stage process was implemented. The first stage was an acrylamide complex
(monomer) synthesis. The reactant mixtures contained hydrates of inorganic salts (Me nitride,
Me = Fe, Co, Ni) and acrylamide (AAm). Then a monomer was polymerized. At the end of
the process pyrolysis of the polymer was carried out at a temperature of 773, 873 and
1073K, respectively. A more detailed description of the processing route can be found in
[11].
A set of experimental methods was used for characterization of the properties of the Co,
Fe3C, and Ni nanocomposites. The morphology and phase constitution was studied using
a Rigaku MiniFlexII X-ray diffractometer equipped with a copper cathode ( (CuK) = 0.154184 nm), in a scan range (2) from 20 to 100, a scanning electron microscope
(SEM, Hitachi S-3500N) and analysed using a scanning transmission electron microscope
(STEM, JEOL JEM 1200 EX). To prepare TEM samples, small quantity of powder was
dispersed in ethanol, subjected to 5-minute ultrasonification and afterwards a few drops of the
resulting suspension was deposited on a holey carbon TEM grid and dried at ambient
conditions. Raman spectra were obtained using Raman spectrometer (Nicolet Almega XR)
with 532 nm laser excitation wavelength. Nanocomposite size distribution was determined by
applying a Laser Scattering Particle Size Distribution Analyzer (Horiba LA-950), for powders
before and after ball milling for 30 minutes and a frequency of f = 15 Hz (Retsch CryoMill).
Measurements were carried out after 10-minute ultrasonification in order to shatter
agglomerates. The magnetic properties were evaluated using vibrating sample magnetometer
(VSM Lake Shore 7410), on the basis of hysteresis loops recorded at room temperature, in an
external magnetic field of 800 kAm-1.
The cytotoxicity effect was checked for various extraction concentrations (50, 25, 12.5, 6.25,
3.125 mg/ml). For the assessment of cells reaction, microscopic observations and a cell
proliferation kit XTT was used. The latter is based on a measurement of a metabolic activity
of cells in the in vitro culturing. MG-63 cell line, a human osteosarcoma cell line was used in
the in vitro tests. The extraction vehicle consisted of Dulbeccos Modified Eagles Medium
(DMEM) supplemented with fatal bovine serum, L-glutamine and antibiotic.
3. RESULTS
The nanocomposites, after the final procedure step, regardless their chemical composition,
were in a form of black irregular powder microparticles, having sizes ranging from few up to
hundreds microns (Fig. 1). The SEM observations revealed that the variation of the pyrolysis
temperature seemed not to cause any dramatic changes neither to the shape nor to the size of
the powder particles.
Selected samples were subjected to milling in order to narrow down the particle size
distribution (Fig. 2a and b). For the as-prepared sample the particle size distribution indicated
a bimodal character. Among the particles of several microns large objects, sometimes
exceeding 300 m, were distributed. The particle size distribution pattern in Figure 1b clearly
shows that the subjected ball milling resulted in a constricted, unimodal distribution. Only
10% of the particles had diameter greater than 6.4 microns.
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Figure 1. SEM images of (a) Co#C 773, (b) Co#C 873 and (c) Co#C 1073

Figure 2. Particles size distribution of Co#C 773 sample (a) before milling, (b) after milling in a Cryomill Retsch

The XRD patterns clearly indicate the presence of cobalt, nickel and the orthorhombic crystal
structure of iron carbide for Co, Ni and Fe precursors, respectively. The driving up of the
baseline in the range 2030 in Figures 3a and 3c is probably contributed by amorphous
carbon. However, for the samples Co#C 1073 and Ni#C 873 a clear diffraction peak at about
26, assigned to the graphite plane d002 is seen. As the pyrolysis temperature increases, the
degree of graphitization seems to increase, for all the samples. For the nanocomposites
obtained from iron precursor the graphite-like carbon is present in the sample obtained at
873 K.

Figure 3. X-ray diffraction patterns of (a) Co#C, (b) Fe3C#C and (c) Ni#C nanocomposites

Further information concerning the structure of the carbon matrix was obtained from Raman
spectroscopy (Fig. 4). Representative Raman spectra of the Fe3C#C, Co#C and Ni#C
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nanocomposites pyrolysed at 873 K show two characteristic bands, the main graphite band,
so-called G band, centred at ~1580 cm-1 and the D band located at ~1350 cm 1 [12,13]. The G
band of hexagonal graphite is attributed to the stretch vibration of sp 2-hybridized carbon
atoms in the graphite layer, whereas the D band is the consequence of carbon atoms vibration
of defected graphite lattice or amorphous carbon [14]. It is associated with the defects
presented in the carbon aromatic structure. Moreover, the width of the bands and intensity
ratio of G/D band gives information on the graphitization degree of the carbon matrix [15].
For each sample the G/D ratio is more or less about 1, which reflects a relatively low
graphitization degree and the presence of disordered carbon in the obtained composites. It is
coherent with the results of X-ray diffraction analysis.

Figure 4. Raman spectra of carbon nanocomposites pyrolysed at 873 K

Raman spectra, performed for the Co and Fe3C carbon nanocomposites, also indicate the
presence of oxides, which apparently form on the surface of some nanocrystallites,
unprotected by the carbon matrix. This phenomenon was not observed for the sample
containing nickel. The Raman spectra of the Co#C composite show the bands at 468, 512,
607, 676 cm-1 (assigned to Co3O4), however, a presence of other Co oxides cannot be
excluded (for instance CoO with bands at 607, 676 cm-1). The Raman spectra of the sample
containing Fe3C depicts strong bands at 281 and 217 cm-1 and two other ones, with low
intensities, at about 400 and 600 cm-1 (assigned to -Fe2O3 (hematite)). Other oxidation
products of the Fe3C#C sample can also exist, for instance Fe3O4 (magnetite) or -FeOOH
(goethite). However, due to the lower stability of these phases, under the action of a laser
beam, a heat-induced phase transition and oxidation of these phases to Fe 2O3 can occur. The
presence of oxidation products is not seen in the XRD patterns, which can evidence their thin
layer on the nanocrystallites surface.
The nanocrystallites size distribution in the composites is shown in Figure 5 and the
respective mean values are collected in Table 1.
Analyses for the Co#C composites show that the core sizes are in the range of 718, 719 and
650 nm for the samples pyrolysed at 773, 873 and 1073 K, respectively. For the each Co#C
composite the obtained histograms can be satisfactorily described by a lognormal function
centred at () = 13 (2), () = 15 (2.07), () = 12 (2.35) for Co#C773, Co#C 873 and
Co#C 1073, respectively. It is worth noting that the results obtained from TEM images
analysis support the XRD data where the narrower and more intensive peaks were observed
with increasing the pyrolysis temperature.
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Applying a higher pyrolysis temperature resulted in a broader size distribution of Co

nanocrystallites. The main size for the sample Co#C 773 is 12 nm with a standard deviation
of 1.83 nm (0.15 CV), while the sample pyrolysed at 1073 K gains the same measured size
but with greater standard deviation of 5.61 nm (0.48 CV). This was because of the broader
nanocrystallites size distributions.
Table 1. Mean crystallite size for the Co#C, Fe3C#C and Ni#C nanocomposites
pyrolised at temperatures 773, 873 and 1073 K, respectively

Sample
Cryst.
size
[nm]

Co#C
773
12

Co#C
873
13

Co#C
1073
12

Fe3C#C
773
9

Fe3C#C
873
22

Fe3C#C
1073
33

Ni#C
673
8

Ni#C
773
16

Ni#C
873
15

The nanocrystallites size increase might have occurred by coalescence of neighbouring

nanocrystallites or by diffusion of metal atoms from smaller particles to the larger ones,
resulting in particles, whose symmetry diverged from the singular entities [16,17]. The latter
phenomenon is similar to Ostwald ripening of precipitates [18]. In brief, the thermally
activated Ostwald ripening is driven by internal pressure, which is reversely proportional to
the diameter of the particles.
Fe3C#C

Ni#C

Pyrolysis temperature

Co#C

Figure 5. TEM images for the Co#C, Fe3C#C and Ni#C nanocomposites pyrolysed at (a) 773, (b) 873
and (c) 1073 K; top inset - nanocrystallites size distribution pattern, bottom inset - SAED pattern

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As the nanoscale system tries to lower its overall energy, small (energetically unfavourable)
particles will tend to detach and diffuse through material and finally attach to the surface of
larger particle. In other words, larger particles will grow at the expenses of smaller particles
[17,19].
The inter-layer distances in the sample Fe3C#C 773 correspond to the parameters: 0.251,
0.207, 0.161, 0.145 and 0.120 nm, which coincides exactly with the d spacing in iron oxide
(Fe3O4 and/or Fe2O3). The different phases of iron were identified for the Fe3C#C 873 and
Fe3C#C 1073 samples, where not only iron oxide but also bcc Fe was present. The SAED
patterns for these composites display also diffused rings (002), (100) and (110) deriving from
carbon matrix. The presence of both iron carbide (XRD) and pure iron (SAED) may indicate
the incomplete decomposition of iron carbide, which is usually accompanied by the formation
not only of a graphite phase but also a pure iron [20]. However, it requires further studies for
a better understanding of these phenomena.
Analyses for the Ni#C composites reveal that the nanocrystallites size are in a range of 4-12
nm for Ni#C 673, 820 nm for Ni#C 773 and 549 nm for Ni#C 873. The inter-layer distance
of the metallic cores were calculated to be 0.207, 0.177, 0.126 and 0.106 nm, which is
consistent with that of fcc Ni planes: (111), (200), (220) and (311), respectively. Only for the
sample obtained at 873 K the diffraction ring with the d-spacing of 0.34 nm was observed,
which is close to that of the graphite planes (002). It is worth noting that there is no evidence
for nickel carbide or nickel oxides formation. Therefore, it seems that Ni has a better ability
to associate with carbon in comparison to Co and Fe, thus resulting in more effective
protection against metal oxidation. The similar phenomenon was noted by Fernandez-Garca
and co-workers [21] in the investigation on carbon-encapsulated nickel NCs prepared by a
sucrose-based synthetic strategy.
As in the case of composites containing Co and Fe3C, for the Ni#C nanocomposites for
temperature pyrolysis of 873 K, there was also an increase of large particles at the expense of
the small ones. Increasing the pyrolysis temperature led to broader size distribution, which
can be evidenced by the increase of the values of mean nanocrystallites size from 8 nm with a
standard deviation of 1.83 nm (0.18 CV) for 673 K, 16 nm with std dev of 2.17 nm (0.14 CV)
for 773 K, up to 15 nm with std dev of 5.13 nm (0.35 CV). These values are somewhat
consistent with the mean Ni nanocrystallites size estimated by Scherrer equation to be 6, 9
and 17 nm for N#C 673, Ni#C 773 and Ni#C 873, respectively.
The hysteresis loops for the Co#C composites (Fig. 6a) indicate that all the samples exhibit
ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a ratio
of remanent to saturation magnetization (MR/MS) below 0.25 might point at the presence
of some proportion of the nanocrystallites in a superparamagnetic state [22]. The
corresponding room temperature (T R) saturation magnetization is 19.8, 39.7 and
55.4 Am2/kg, respectively, which is much lower than the MS of the bulk cobalt (161 Am2kg1
at TR) and is caused by the contribution from carbon matrix but it can also by affected by the
presence of other phases including cobalt oxides. Assuming that the magnetic properties only
stem from the metallic cobalt and the contribution of cobalt dioxide is negligible, the content
of the magnetic component (Fmc) values were extrapolated to be 12, 25 and 34 wt.% for the
samples pyrolysed at 773, 873 and 1073 K, respectively.
For the samples prepared from iron precursors, the data imply a ferromagnetic behaviour as
indicated by the open hysteresis loops, i.e. non-zero remanence and coercivity, and the
relatively high values of remanence/saturation (MR/MS) ratio (Fig. 6b). The enhanced MR/MS
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ratio for the both Fe#C873 K and Fe#C1073 indicates the existence of exchange magnetic
interaction in these samples [23,24]. Moreover, due to the relatively large mean
nanocrystallites size of Fe3C, calculated by TEM images, a superparamagnetic contribution
can hardly be observed for these composites. On the contrary to the sample pyrolysed at
773 K, the MR/MS was 0.11, which points that the nanocrystallites assembly can contain
smaller entities in a superparamagnetic state. Comparing obtained data with the value of M s
of the bulk iron carbide (140 Am2kg-1 at TR), the Fmc are 8, 24 and 28 wt. %, respectively.
The VSM yields coercivity 8, 46.4 and 40 kA/m for Fe3C#C 773, Fe3C#C 873 and Fe3C#C
1073, respectively, at room temperature. In such a nanosystem, consisting of randomly
distributed magnetic nanocrystallites entrapped in a diamagnetic matrix, strong magnetic
interactions are expected. Besides, it is found that the relatively large coercivity can be
attributed the size close that size of single domain particles, where the maximum of Hc
occurs. It is reported the coercivity mechanism in nanosystems is a complex mixture
of several mechanisms including coherent rotations, pinning and superparamagnetism.
Magnetic M(H) curves for the Ni#C composites (Fig. 6c) exhibit near-zero coercive force and
remanence values, suggesting a high superparamagnetic contribution in the materials. It
coincides with the relatively low MR/MS ratio for the samples prepared at 673 and 773 K. In
the case of the sample Ni#C 873, a mixture of both superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic
particles due to broad nanocrystallites size distribution might be expected. The corresponding
saturation magnetization amounted to 3.9, 11.4, 13.2 Am2kg-1 increasing with the increase in
percentage fraction of metallic nickel, being 8, 22 and 26 wt.% respectively. The low MS
value for these samples in comparison to the Ms of bulk nickel (51.3 Am2kg-1 at TR) can be
explained partly by the small volume fraction of the metallic component. But yet, if the
assembly of fine particles is concerned, the surface effect, spin canting and sample
inhomogeneity, which can make a contribution to reducing the M S, cannot be neglected.

Figure 6. Hysteresis loops of (a) Co#C composites, (b) Fe3C#C composites

and (c) Ni#C composites obtained at room temperature

In a view of the above findings, the VMS results for Ni#C composites, the zero-field-cooled
(ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) curves as a function of temperature were recorded (Fig. 7).
The FC magnetization curve looked similar for all samples and decreased with temperature,
presenting reduction of the magnetic moment. The ZFC curves for Ni#C 673 and Ni#C 773
had a maximum centred at about 39 and 141 K, respectively, indicating the blocking
temperature (TB). The presence of a broad hump on the ZFC for the sample Ni#C 773 was
a consequence of the wide nanocrystallites size distribution. Therefore, it is better to assume
that there would rather be a distribution of T B than only one single TB. Different behaviour
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was observed for the material pyrolysed at 873 K, where ZFC magnetization did not show a
maximum within the applied temperature range. This behaviour indicates that the magnetic
properties are controlled by magnetostatic interactions and the composite presents
ferromagnetic ordering.

Figure 7. The zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) magnetizations curves for Ni#C samples
pyrolysed at (a) 673, (b) 773 and (c) 873 K

Figure 8 presents the time changes of the Ni#C samples temperature, for specimens subjected
to an alternate magnetic field of different strength HAC and a frequency of f = 450 kHz. The
course of the curve T(t) is a measure of the power released in a unit volume of the sample.
The analysis of calorimetric results allowed an estimate of the contribution of relaxation and
hysteresis loss mechanisms to total energy losses in the hyperthermal effect under the
influence of an alternating magnetic field. It is clear from Figure 8 that, depending on the
pyrolysis temperature, time form few to 50 seconds is sufficient to heat the system up to
required temperature exceeding 40C. The calorimetric measurements and theoretical
considerations (not presented in this paper) [25] showed that the relaxation processes
dominate in the heat generation mechanism for the Ni#C composite pyrolysed at 673 K. For
the samples pyrolysed at 773 and 873 K, significant values of coercivity and remanence, give
substantial contributions to the energy losses for hysteresis. The Ni#C composites generated
sufficient heat to propose them for thermal therapies. The statement that superparamagnetic
nanoparticles NPs are able to generate impressive levels of heat at lower magnetic fields
compared to ferromagnetic ones is not true for this type of magnetic carbon nanocomposites.

Figure 8. Timetemperature curves for samples obtained at various pyrolysis temperatures: (a) 673 K, (b) 773 K, and
(c) 873 K, for different values of the magnetic field HAC, of frequency f = 450 kHz

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INNOVATIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY 2014

The impact of carbon composites on the survival of bone cells MG-63 in vitro, was also
assessed. Representatives from each material group were chosen, i.e. Co#C 873, Fe 3C#C and
Ni#C 873, respectively, to illustrate how a type of material influences the cell survival. The
pure growth medium was treated as positive control and constituted the reference for all the
results. The fluorescence value obtained with the control was deemed to indicate 100%
viability.
After the morphological observation and quantitative tests performed, it appeared that the
XTT test is not an appropriate assay for the evaluation of cytotoxicity. It was due to the fact
that XTT test is a calorimetric assay, while it was found that the tested samples change both
the colour of the culture medium and its pH. These factors can affect the reliability of this
type of assay; therefore, the main emphasis was placed on the morphological evaluation and
PicoGreen assay results.
PicoGreen assay results indicated that for Co-containing composite there was negligible
change in the number of cells exposed on the extracts at the concentration of 3.12 and
6.25 mg/ml (fluorescence c.a. 97 and 90% of control, respectively), as seen in Figure 9). For
extract of the test sample at the concentration of 12.5% almost 20% reduction of the number
of cells was recorded, which is still considered a no cytotoxic in accordance with ISO 1 09935:2009261 ISO. Only for the composite extract at a concentration of 25 and 50 mg/ml moderate
cytotoxicity was observed (reduction of cell number to 17 and 16%, respectively).

Figure 9. PicoGreen assay results performed after 24 h incubation of MG-63 cells in the presence of extracts prepared
from the carbon composites pyrolysed at 873 K

Viability of cells, incubated in the presence of extracts based on Fe 3C#C composites, at

concentration of 6.25, 12.5, 25 and 50 % (3.12, 6.25, 12.5, 25 mg/ml respectively), was in the
range of 82102% of control, indicating on a none-cytotoxic effect of these extracts on the
mammalian cells. However, when concerning the extract at the highest concentration (100%,
or 50 mg/ml) reduction of cell viability to c.a. 49% of control was observed. This suggests a
mildly cytotoxic effect of the tested specimen, but only when cells are exposed to the highest
concentration extract.
The MG-63 cells incubated in extracts prepared from Ni#C composite seemed to cause larger
cytotoxic effect compared to Co#C and Fe3C#C composites. In case of extracts at
concentration of 6.25 and 12.5 mg/ml effect on mammalian cells can be described as slightly
cytotoxic (reduction of cell viability to 78 an 69%, respectively). The 50%-extract can be
assigned as mildly cytotoxic, whereas for the 100% one (50 mg/ml) cytotoxicity response was
rated as severe based on the activity relative to values obtained for the control.
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4. CONCLUSIONS
The three-step procedure, applied in these studies, enables fabrication of magnetic carbon
nanocomposites, composed of nanocrystallites stabilized in a carbon matrix.
Because the size of composite particles is in the micrometres size range it predispose them
predominantly for in vitro applications such as magnetic bioseparation. However, the size of
microparticles can be refined by milling in a ball mill, which enables their further selection
for a particular application.
The method used for fabrication of the carbon nanocomposites enables control of the
magnetic nanocrystallites size and thus their magnetic properties.
The mesoporous carbon composites with relatively high surface area are believed to be
potentially applied for the adsorption of drugs and biomolecules. It is further facilitate by the
existence of plentiful of various surface oxygen-containing functional groups on the carbon
composite surface ensuring the linkage of biomolecules.
The relaxation processes dominate in the heat generation mechanism for the Ni#C composite
pyrolysed at 673 K. For the samples pyrolysed at 773 and 873 K, significant values of
coercivity and remanence, give substantial contributions to the energy losses for hysteresis.
The Ni#C composites generated sufficient heat to propose them for thermal therapies.
The PicoGreen assay results confirmed that the composites containing Fe 3C are non-cytotoxic
or exhibit slightly cytotoxic effect at the highest concentration of composite particle. Majority
of the Ni#C and Co#C composites was characterized as slightly or moderately cytotoxic.
Only the extracts at a concentration of 25 and 50 mg/ml were assessed as highly cytotoxic.
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