Abstract
Composites combining superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and polymers arelargely present in modern (bio)materials. However, while SPIONs embedded in polymer matricesare classically reported, the mechanical and degradation properties of the polymer scaffold areimpacted by the SPIONs. Therefore, the controlled anchoring of SPIONs onto polymer surfaces isstill a major challenge. Herein, we propose an efficient strategy for the direct and uniformanchoring of SPIONs on the surface of functionalized-polylactide (PLA) nanofibers via a simplefree ligand exchange procedure to design PLA@SPIONs core@shell nanocomposites. Theresulting PLA@SPIONs hybrid biomaterials are characterized by electron microscopy (SEM andTEM) and EDXS analysis, to probe the morphology and detect elements present at theorganic/inorganic interface, respectively. A monolayer of SPIONs with a complete andhomogeneous coverage is observed on the surface of PLA nanofibers. Magnetization experimentsshow that magnetic properties of the nanoparticles are well-preserved after their grafting on thePLA fibers and that the size of the nanoparticles does not change. The absence of cytotoxicity,combined with a high sensitivity of detection in MRI both in vitro and in vivo make these hybridnanocomposites attractive for the development of magnetic biomaterials for biomedicalapplications.