Analysis of nucleation and Growth using INSPECT II for co-precipitation methodology-based synthesis

Abstract

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a quantitative imaging modality which provides information on the spatial distribution of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Magnetic particle spectrometry (MPS) is a characterization tool which helps in determining the magnetic properties of these synthesized MNPs. As MNPs directly influence the image resolution, therefore different approaches are used to improve the magnetic properties of these MNPs both chemically and by changing the synthesis environment. Last year, INSPECT II with a fully controllable temperature bath for maximizing control of the synthesis environment and simultaneously determining the magnetic properties of MNPs during the synthesis process was introduced. INSPECT II is tuned to the sinusoidal excitation frequency of 25 kHz at 10 mT. In this setup a volume of 50 ml of a suspension of MNPs can easily be synthesized. A chemical reaction based on the co-precipitation methodology was carried out inside INSPECT II to analyze the nucleation and growth of the synthesized magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). In this research, the change in magnetic properties of SPIONs was tracked with the help of INSPECT II during one complete synthesis. The synthesis lasted for 140 minutes and consisted of 70 measurements. INSPECT II was able to observe and record the change in magnetic properties of the synthesized nanoparticles and the obtained results in terms of change in magnetic moment versus time will be presented. The synthesis process used for the validation of INSPECT II is the co-precipitation synthesis based on the methods developed by Lüdtke-Buzug et al.