Effect of reaction and post-treatment conditions on physico-chemical properties of magnetic iron oxide nano-particles (Open Access) --颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Moeni, M., Edokali, M., Rogers, M., Cespedes, O., Tliba, L., Habib, T., . . . Hassanpour, A. (2024). Effect of reaction and post-treatment conditions on physico-chemical properties of magnetic iron oxide nano-particles. Particuology, 91, 155-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2024.02.006

Effect of reaction and post-treatment conditions on physico-chemical properties of magnetic iron oxide nano-particles (Open Access)

Masome Moeni^a, Mohamed Edokali^a, Matthew Rogers^b, Oscar Cespedes^b, Louey Tliba^a, Tamseela Habib^{a c}, Robert Menzel^d, Ali Hassanpour^a *

a School of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
b School of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
c Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
d School of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

10.1016/j.partic.2024.02.006

Volume 91, August 2024, Pages 155-167

Received 24 November 2023, Revised 2 February 2024, Accepted 21 February 2024, Available online 16 March 2024, Version of Record 28 March 2024.

E-mail: A.Hassanpour@leeds.ac.uk

Highlights

• Influence of synthesis and post-treatment methods on stability, dispersity, and magnetism of Fe₃O₄ NPs are investigated.

• Untreated Fe₃O₄ NPs (WET) has the best stability and dispersity at different temperatures.

• Liquid Nitrogen Freeze-dried (LFD) samples have the best stability and magnetism amongst post-treated samples.

Abstract

Poor stability and dispersibility, as well as aggregation are considered as major challenges in clinical application of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). Several studies have shown that the synthesis parameters and post-synthesis treatments e.g., drying methods, have the capability to improve the particles' characteristics. Herein, we investigate the combined effect of synthesis and post-treatment parameters on the particle size, stability and magnetism of IONPs. Magnetite (Fe₃O₄) NPs were prepared via co-precipitation and post-treated using different methods, i.e. (i) freeze dried at –53 °C, 0.133 mbar for 48 h (liquid nitrogen frozen (LFD) and freezer frozen (FFD)), (ii) vacuum oven dried (VOD) at 60 °C for 24 h, and (iii) kept wet colloidal (WET), dispersed in deionized water. The Fe₃O₄ NPs’ chemical functional groups, size, shape, crystallinity, stability, aggregation, porosity, and magnetic properties were further analysed using different characterisation techniques. Analytical results showed that, while the WET sample had the best stability and significantly less aggregation at different temperatures, amongst post-treated Fe₃O₄ NPs, LFD sample exhibited the best stability (up to 37 °C), dispersion and smallest polydispersity index. Furthermore, all dried NPs had superparamagnetic characteristics, while, LFD Fe₃O₄ NPs had better magnetic properties and stability than other drying methods.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Iron oxide nanoparticles; Co-precipitation; Stability; Aggregation; Magnetic properties

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