One-pot reaction to synthesize PEG-coated hollow magnetite nanostructures with excellent magnetic properties.

We first demonstrate a simple "one-pot" method to synthesis uniform Fe3O4 hollow microspheres in the presence of PEG in ethylene glycol by using urea to control their morphologies. The interior cavity of the hollow spheres can be tunable by reaction time. The Lamer model was used to explain the formation of magnetite hollow spherical structures based on the experimental observations. The obtained hollow Fe3O4 microspheres showing superparamagnetism with a high saturation magnetization of ca. 86.4 emu/g, and also had an enrichment surface of -OH groups, which will be favorable to the further modification with other biomedical molecules.