A facile route to synthesize porous ethyl cellulose spheres loaded with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles

Ethyl cellulose porous spheres (ECPSs) loaded with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been successfully synthesized via a physical method in oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion. The as-prepared ECPSs possess open pores in the shell and interconnected pores inside the spheres by means of phase separation. The SPIONs with an average size of around 5 nm synthesized by co-precipitation method are added into oil phase precursor in the preparation of ECPSs to synthesize the ECPSs-SPIONs. The loading of SPIONs does not change the morphology of ECPSs, while endows the ECPSs with high ferromagnetic properties at room temperature. The resultant ECPSs-SPIONs can be easily separated from dispersion liquid or driven to specific sites under an external magnet.