title: Development of magnetic chromatography to sort polydisperse nanoparticles in ferrofluids.
abstract: Whatever the strategy of synthesis, nanoparticles in magnetic fluids commonly feature a broad size distribution. However, the presence of several size populations in ferrofluids is often problematic because of the close relationship between the efficiency of the nanoparticles and their physicochemical properties. In this work, a magnetic size sorting procedure is developed in order to reduce this polydispersity, using the magnetic properties of the iron oxide nanoparticles. This magnetic sorting with an adjustable magnetic field allows isolation of the small superparamagnetic particles as well as the larger particles. Magnetometry, nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion profiles and transmission electron microscopy were successfully used to check the efficiency of the magnetic sorting procedure, which was shown to work as a 'magnetic' chromatography.
authors.affiliation: Department of General, Organic and Biomedical Chemistry, NMR and Molecular Imaging Laboratory, University of Mons, 24 Avenue du Champ de Mars, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Forge
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gossuin
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roch
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.forename: Luce Vander
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Elst
authors.forename: Robert N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Muller
mesh_terms: D005591:Chemical Fractionation; D002845:Chromatography / Q000379:methods*; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D008280:Magnetics / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010316:Particle Size; D013535:Suspensions
chemical_list: D005290:Ferric Compounds; D013535:Suspensions; C000499:ferric oxide