Aqueous ferrofluids as templates for magnetic hydroxyapatite nanocomposites

Poly (vinyl) alcohol stabilized aqueous ferrofluids (PVA-ff) were used as nanotemplates for the crystallization of calcium hydroxyapatite (HAp). Four sets of PVA-ff-HAp nanocomposites were synthesized using 20, 40, 60 and 80 ml of PVA-ff for the same initial constituents of HAp. Various physico-chemical analyses suggest that the HAp lattice structure accommodates PVA-ff to a certain extent, beyond which the magnetic intra-molecular interactions predominate and PVA-ff starts to be pushed out of the HAp matrix. The in situ incorporation of PVA-ff during HAp synthesis results in a novel magnetic biomaterial with potential applications as targeted delivery vehicles.