Preparation of immunomagnetic nanoparticles and their application in the separation of mouse CD34 hematopoietic stem cells

The magnetic nanoparticles with a diameter of about 60 nm were synthesized by coprecipitation from ferrous and ferric iron solutions and coated with silica. Then the nanoparticles were modified with N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (AEAPS) in order to immobilize anti-CD34⁺ monoclonal antibodies to the surface of modified magnetic particles. The results of transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) indicated that the nanoparticles were successfully prepared. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photo confirmed that the mouse CD34⁺ cells (cells expressing CD34) were separated by the immunomagnetic nanoparticles. The viability of the separated cells was studied by hematopoietic colony-forming assay, the result of which showed that the target cells still had an ability of proliferation and differentiation. The application of the separated CD34⁺ cells was in testing the pharmacological effect of three samples isolated from enzyme-digested traditional Chinese medicine Colla corii asini.     

Magnetic nanoparticles: Internal probes and heaters within living cells

Tagging living cells with magnetic nanoparticles raised increasing interest in the fields of magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic hyperthermia, cell sorting or tissue engineering. Here, we demonstrate that the confinement of magnetic nanoparticles at the intracellular level, inside endosomes vesicles, allows developing original magnetic manipulations in response to different magnetic field solicitations. These manipulations are used to deform cellular internal membrane, to probe the cell architecture or to heat the cell from its inside.     

Some aspects concerning the design of an immunomagnetic separation process

We used a stochastic model and have performed a series of numerical simulations to optimise the step of microorganisms collection on magnetic carrier particles. We obtained that the time of capture depends on concentration of carrier particles in suspension, their size, the volume fraction of magnetite in the composite material, the applied magnetic field intensity and its gradient, the size and density of micro-organisms to be collected and the density and viscosity of the liquid in which the particles are suspended.     

Synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles under oxidizing environment and their stabilization in aqueous and non-aqueous media

Synthesis of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles under oxidizing environment by precipitation from aqueous media is not straightforward because Fe²⁺ gets oxidized to Fe³⁺ and thus the ratio of Fe³⁺:Fe²⁺=2:1 is not maintained during the precipitation. A molar ratio of Fe³⁺:Fe²⁺ smaller than 2:1 has been used by many to compensate for the oxidation of Fe²⁺ during the preparation. In this work, we have prepared iron oxide nanoparticles in air environment by the precipitation technique using initial molar ratios Fe³⁺:Fe²⁺?2:1. The phases of the resulting powders have been determined by several techniques. It is found that the particles consist mainly of maghemite with little or no magnetite phase. The particles have been suspended in non-aqueous and aqueous media by coating the particles with a single layer and a bilayer of oleic acid, respectively. The particle sizes, morphology and the magnetic properties of the particles and the ferrofulids prepared from these particles are reported. The average particle sizes obtained from the TEM micrographs are 14, 10 and 9 nm for the water, kerosene and dodecane-based ferrofluids, respectively, indicating a better dispersion in the non-aqueous media. The specific saturation magnetization (σ_s) value of the oleic-acid-coated particles (∼53 emu/g) is found to be lower than that for the uncoated particles (∼63 emu/g). Magnetization σ_s of the dodecane-based ferrofluid is found to be 10.1 emu/g for a volume fraction of particles ?=0.019. Zero coercivity and zero remanance on the magnetization curves indicate that the particles are superparamagnetic (SPM) in nature.     

Synthesis and characterization of a novel magnetic carrier with its composition of Fe3O4/carbon using hydrothermal reaction

In this study, a simple method to prepare a novel magnetic carrier based on carbon matrix has been built by heating the aqueous solution of glucose and oleic acid-stabilized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle at 170 °C for 3 h. The results show that the surface hydrophobic modification of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle is necessary for the successful synthesis of Fe₃O₄/C nanocomposition, and a possible formation mechanism of Fe₃O₄/C nanocomposition was presented. The influence of the reaction parameters such as the concentration of oleic acid-stabilized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle, the reaction time, etc. on the product was also investigated. In the typical reaction (2.5 g/L of oleic acid-stabilized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle, 0.5 M of glucose), Fe₃O₄/C nanocompositions with the average diameter in the range 100–200 nm were obtained and its saturation is 12.4 emu/g. In order to characterize Fe₃O₄/C nanocompositions, XPS, XRD, FT–IR, and Mössbauer spectra were employed.     

Synthesis and properties of magnetic fluid based on iron nanoparticles prepared by a vapor-phase condensation process

Magnetic fluid containing metallic iron nanoparticles was successfully fabricated in this work. The iron nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical vapor condensation process and then dispersed in water-base solution (pH 11) with oleic acid as surfactant. More than 80% of iron nanoparticles were fully dispersed in the fluid and remained stable without any further oxidation over 200 h. Both the iron nanoparticles and the subsequent magnetic fluid exhibited typical ferromagnetic behavior.     

Synthesis and magnetic properties of antiferromagnetic Co3O4 nanoparticles

Antiferromagnetic Co₃O₄ nanoparticles with diameter around 30 nm have been synthesized by a solution-based method. The phase identification by the wide-angle X-ray powder diffraction indicates that the Co₃O₄ nanoparticle has a cubic spinel structure with a lattice constant of 0.80843(2) nm. The image of field emission scanning electron microscope shows that the nanoparticles are assembled together to form nanorods. The magnetic properties of Co₃O₄ fine particles have been measured by a superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer. A deviation of the Néel temperature from the bulk is observed, which can be well described by the theory of finite-size scaling. An enhanced coercivity as well as a loop shift are observed in the field-cooled hysteresis loop. The exchange bias field decreases with increasing temperature and diminishes at the Néel temperature. The training effect and the opening of the loop reveal the existence of the spin-glass-like surface spins.     

Magnetic and magnetoresistance behavior of Tb7Rh3, an intermetallic compound with a negative temperature coefficient of electrical resistivity in the paramagnetic state

The results of dc magnetization, electrical and magnetoresistance and heat capacity measurements (2-300 K) on Tb₇Rh₃, crystallizing in the Th₇Fe₃-type hexagonal structure, are reported. In this compound, magnetic ordering sets in around 90 K with additional transitions at low temperatures and the temperature coefficient of resistivity (ρ), , is negative over a wide temperature range in the paramagnetic state. The present magnetization results reveal that this compound is apparently characterized by rich features in the magnetic-field-temperature phase diagram. A point of major emphasis is that the sign of in the paramagnetic state can be gradually changed by the application of a magnetic field. As a result, the magnitude of the magnetoresistance (MR) is rather large even in the vicinity of room temperature (far above the magnetic ordering temperature), in addition to giant MR behavior in the magnetically ordered state.     

Direct comparison of the aging and memory effects of magnetic nanoclusters and nanoparticles

The magnetic characteristics of a dense magnetic nanoparticle system and a spin glass system consisting of magnetic nanoclusters are compared. Zero field cooled and field cooled magnetization measurements, including aging and memory experiments, of the nanoparticle and the magnetic cluster systems show similar characteristics, suggesting a common origin for the spin glass-type behavior of the magnetic nanoparticle and nanocluster systems.     

Fabrication of L10 FePtAg nanoparticles and a study of the effect of Ag during the annealing process

L1₀ ferromagnetic phase FePt nanoparticles containing Ag atoms (FePtAg) were synthesized by means of a liquid phase process, followed by annealing. The addition of Ag to FePt nanoparticles permits annealing to be conducted at a lower temperature (350 °C). This is further accompanied by a subsequent transformation in the crystal phase from the FCC superparamagnetic phase to the FCT (L1₀) ferromagnetic phase. The effects of annealing temperature and the Ag atoms inside the nanoparticles on the magnetic properties of the FePt nanoparticles have been studied. Using electron spectroscopy for the chemical analysis (ESCA), Ag atoms in the L1₀ phase FePtAg nanoparticles were found to be localized on the surface region of the annealed nanoparticles. The Ag atoms function to inhibit the oxidation of FePt, causing the particles to become more stable and to have ferromagnetic properties.     

Particle size dependence of exchange-bias and coercivity in CuO nanoparticles

For CuO nanocrystals of size 6.6-37 nm, the exchange bias H_eb and coercivity H_c are measured at 5 K in zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC at 50 kOe) samples and their variations investigated as a function of particle size D. The similar 1/D variations observed for the difference coercivity ΔH_c=H_c(FC)−H_c(ZFC) and the interfacial exchange energy Δσ=H_ebM_fD are discussed in terms of the ferromagnetic magnetization M_f being produced by the uncompensated surface Cu²⁺ spins in the otherwise antiferromagnetically ordered CuO nanoparticles. This leads to the observation that the experimentally measured ΔH_c provides a good measure of Δσ in nanoparticle systems, with H_eb/ΔH_c varying as 1/M_fD.     

The influence of thermal annealing on the structural and magnetic properties of gold nanoparticles

In the past few years ferromagnetic-like behavior has been reported in metal gold nanoparticles coated with diverse organic surfactants. In this work we report on the effect of thermal annealing on the ferromagnetic-like behavior of oleic acid and oleylamine coated gold nanoparticles of about 7 nm size. The magnetic moment of the “as prepared” sample is about 3×10⁻² emu/g and the coercive field is 200 Oe at 10 kOe and 5 K, after the annealing the behavior changes from ferromagnetic-like to paramagnetic and the magnetization at 10 kOe decreases at a factor of 10. These results are compared with those obtained for oleylamine coated gold nanoparticles, which are diamagnetic at room temperature.     

Magnetization and actuation of polymeric microstructures with magnetic nanoparticles for application in microfluidics

An increasing number of lab-on-a-chip devices require advanced fluid manipulations. We intend to address this requirement by incorporating polymeric responsive materials on the walls of the microfluidic channels of such devices. In this paper we present a magnetic polymer made from commercially available functionalized magnetic nanoparticles and PDMS. Loadings of this polymer up to 5% volume of magnetic material were achieved. We report on the Young's modulus of this material and describe its magnetization behavior with a combination of inter-particle interaction and particle cluster demagnetization effects. The magnetic polymer can have a magnetic susceptibility up to 0.5 and by curing in a magnetic field, a magnetic anisotropy of a factor 2 in susceptibility can be created. Finally, a finite element model simulation is performed to quantify the amplitude of motion of a microstructure made of this magnetic polymer, and the local magnetic actuation with a current running in a micro-fabricated wire is discussed.     

Effect of anions on the phase stability of γ-FeOOH nanoparticles and the magnetic properties of gamma-ferric oxide derived from lepidocrocite

The effect of anions such as Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, and HPO₄²⁻ on the phase stability of FeOOH (α or γ) during precipitation is investigated. Oxidation of Fe(OH)₂·xH₂O from FeCl₂ solution with high Cl⁻ concentration ([Cl⁻]/[Fe]=R_Cl≥8) or (NH₄)₂Fe(SO₄)₂ (FAS) with [HPO₄²⁻]/[Fe]=R_P≥0.02 yields phase-pure γ-FeOOH. In the medium ranges of R_Cl and R_P, mixed phases of α-FeOOH and γ-FeOOH are obtained. Replacement of OH⁻ by Cl⁻ with the bridging cations or strongly bonded HPO₄²⁻ ions in the matrix of the intermediate phase (Fe_x²⁺Fe_y³⁺(OH)_2x+2y−nz·xH₂O(A)_zⁿ⁻, where A is anions such as Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, HPO₄²⁻, etc.), promoted the lower density γ-FeOOH. However, the particles are less developed and have poor crystallinity as evidenced from transmission electron microscope and thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis of the precipitates. Whereas, monophasic, uniformly sized, nano-lath shaped particles with high aspect ratio >10 are obtained when morphology-controlling cation additives such as Pt⁴⁺, Pd²⁺ or Rh³⁺ are present in FeCl₂ (R_Cl≥8) solution. Preferential adsorption of additives on (0k0) and (h00) planes limits the growth in the perpendicular directions leading to high aspect ratios. The effect of these additives are suppressed by the phosphate ion, a strong complexing ligand, giving rise to fibrous aggregate with the length of individual particles as small as 10-30 nm. While most of the Cl⁻ ion is removed from the final precipitates on washing, phosphate remained as HPO₄²⁻ as evidenced from IR absorption spectra. Maghemite obtained by dehydroxylating γ-FeOOH contains randomly distributed micropores bringing in the relaxation effects of spins on the surface atoms as deciphered from Mössbauer spectroscopy. This leads to the low σ_s (44-48 emu/g) and H_c (120-130 Oe) for γ-Fe₂O_3−δ particles. Whereas nearly pore-free single crystalline particles obtained by reduction followed by reoxidation has high value of σ_s (73 emu/g) and H_c (320 Oe), which decreases to 30 emu/g and 75 Oe, respectively, for nanoparticles obtained from phosphate stabilized lepidocrocite. The mobility of iron ions and counter mobility of vacancies during the topotactic transformation of γ-FeOOH to magnetite to γ-Fe₂O_3−δ renders the particles pore-free.     

Effects of powder flowability on the alignment degree and magnetic properties for NdFeB sintermagnets

The magnetic powders for sintered NdFeB magnets have been prepared by using the strip casting (SC), hydrogen decrepitation (HD) and jet milling (JM) techniques. The effects of powder flowability and addition of a lubricant on the alignment degree and the hard magnetic properties of sintered magnets have been studied. The results show that the main factor affecting powder flowability is the aggregation of magnetic particles for powders in a loose state, but it is the friction between the powder particles for powders that are in a compact state. The addition of a lubricant with suitable dose can slightly prevent the congregating of powders, obviously decrease the friction between the powder particles, improve the powder flowability, and increase the alignment degree, remanence and energy product density of sintered magnets. Mixing a suitable dose of lubricant and adopting rubber isostatic pressing (RIP) with a pulse magnetic field, we have succeeded in producing the sintered NdFeB magnet with high hard magnetic properties of B_r=14.57 KG, _jH_c=14.43 KOe, (BH)_max=51.3 MGOe.     

Gas flow sputtering: Versatile process for the growth of nanopillars, nanoparticles, and epitaxial thin films

Gas flow sputtering is a sputter-deposition method that enables soft and high-rate deposition even for oxides or nitrides. It involves sputtering at a high pressure of around 100 Pa and hollow cathode discharge in a tubular or parallel plate target with forced Ar flow. Depending on the sputtering conditions, various structures of magnetic materials are obtained, and some examples are shown in this paper. Co-Pt and Fe nanopillars are fabricated using a tubular target with a large inner diameter (6-40 mm). Fe nanoparticles with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to 150 nm are fabricated using a tubular target with a small inner diameter (5 mm). Magnetite epitaxial thin films are fabricated on MgO and GaAs substrates by substrate heating.     

Synthesis and characterization of electro-crystallized Cd-Sn-Se semiconductor films for application in non-aqueous photoelectrochemical solar cells

In the present investigation, thin films of CdSnSe have been developed on transparent conducting oxide (TCO) coated glasses by electrolytic deposition. The controlled incorporation of Sn in the semiconducting layer have been achieved by varying the concentration of Sn²⁺ from 5 to 22 g/l of SnCl₂ in the deposition bath. The semiconductor film grown on the glass substrate consisted of n-type CdSnSe semiconductor compounds (alloyed and/or mixed type) in the form of highly dispersed, spherically shaped polycrystallites as detected from X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Their optoelectronic properties were determined by spectroscopic analysis and electrochemical measurements. The performance characteristics of a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell fabricated with the prepared photo-electrode and ferrocene-ferricenium redox couple in dimethyl formamide were observed under dark and illuminated conditions. The prepared semiconductor films were electrochemically characterized through capacitance-voltage measurements. The film that was obtained from 10 g/l of Sn²⁺ in the bath, showed an optimum spectral sensitivity and corresponded to a film thickness of 0.65 μm and stoichiometry of Cd:Sn:Se as 1:1:1. The pronounced PEC activity of this film compared to the others was attributed to the combined effect of space charge properties, electron-hole recombination processes and transfer of charges through the Helmholtz layer at the semiconductor-solution interface.     

Nanoporous carbon spheres and their application in dispersing silver nanoparticles

Monodisperse nanoporous carbon spheres (NCS) were synthesized in large quantities via a facile hydrothermal synthesis. It is found that the NCS have rough surfaces with a large quantity of uniformly distributed protruding and concaving zones. Large quantities of nanopores of about 0.3 nm in diameter are distributed uniformly on the whole sphere surfaces. The effects of reaction parameters on the surface roughness, sphere diameter and pore size of NCS were investigated. Taking the NCS as substrates, silver nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited onto their surfaces using a one-step ultrasonic electrodeposition procedure. The deposited silver NP has a uniform distribution, a high particle density and a narrow size range of 12-16 nm in diameter. This study demonstrates an efficient approach to fabricate noble-metal/carbon nanocomposites.     

Synthesis and magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 ferrite nanoparticles

CoFe₂O₄ ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by a modified chemical coprecipitation route. Structural and magnetic properties were systematically investigated. X-ray diffraction results showed that the sample was in single phase with the space group . The results of field-emission scanning electronic microscopy showed that the grains appeared spherical with diameters ranging from 20 to 30 nm. The composition determined by energy-dispersive spectroscopy was stoichiometry of CoFe₂O₄. The Curie temperature in the process of increasing temperature was slightly higher than that in the process of decreasing temperature. This can be understood by the fact that heating changed Co²⁺ ion redistribution in tetrahedral and in octahedral sites. The coercivity of the synthesized CoFe₂O₄ samples was lower than the theoretical values, which could be explained by the mono-domain structure and a transformation from ferrimagnetic to superparamagnetic state.     

Ball solitons in kinetics of the first-order magnetic phase transition

The theory of magnetic ball solitons (BS) arising as a result of the energy fluctuations, at the spin–flop transition induced by a magnetic field in antiferromagnets with uniaxial anisotropy, is presented. Such solitons are possible in a wide range of amplitudes and energies, including the negative energy relative to an initial condition. When such antiferromagnet is in a metastable condition, ball solitons are born with the greatest probability if the energy of solitons is close to zero. Evolution of these solitons, at which they develop into macroscopic domains of a new magnetic phase, is analyzed, thus, carrying out full phase reorganization.