Four
different novel magnetic core–shell nanocomposites
stabilized with Au/Pd nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a simple
procedure and demonstrated their catalytic activity for effective
cleavage of pBR322 DNA. Initially, the Fe3O4–poly(styrene-divinylbenzene-vinylbenzyl chloride) (ST-DVB-VBC)
matrix functionalized with 3-aminobenzoic acid was prepared and grafted
with PPI-G(2) and PPI-G(3) dendrimers. Each core–shell matrix
was immobilized with AuNPs and PdNPs separately. The resulting composites
were characterized by FT-IR, UV–vis, SEM, TEM, XRD, VSM, XPS,
Raman, and TGA. The magnetic core–shell nanocomposites at concentrations
from 30 to 50 μM were employed separately to study DNA cleavage
by agarose gel electrophoresis. Among the four magnetic core–shell
nanocomposites, Fe3O4–poly(ST-DVB-VBC)–PPI-G(3)–AuNPs
showed higher activity than others for DNA cleavage, and formed Form-II
and -III DNA. When the concentration of Fe3O4–poly(ST-DVB-VBC)–PPI-G(3)–AuNPs was increased
from 40 to 45 and 45 to 50 μM, Form-III (linear) DNA was observed
with 10 and 22%, respectively, in addition to Form-II. This observation
suggests formation of linear DNA from the supercoiled DNA via nicked
DNA-intermediated consecutive cleaving process. The magnetic core–shell
nanocomposites were stable and monodispersed, and exhibited rapid
magnetic response. These properties are crucial for their application
in biomolecular separations and targeted drug-delivery in the future.