Assemblies of magnetite nanoparticles extracted from magnetotactic bacteria: A magnetic study

Self-assembly has emerged as a suitable technique for tuning the properties of nanoparticles. In this work, we report the self-assembly of magnetosomes assisted by an external magnetic field. The magnetosomes are magnetite nanoparticles biomineralized by magnetotactic bacteria Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. These nanoparticles present truncated cubo-octahedral morphology with a mean diameter of ˜36 nm and are surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane with a thickness ˜2-4 nm. The use of the appropriate preparation conditions, such as initial colloidal concentration and magnetic fields applied during deposition allowed us to obtain very reproducible self-assembled 2D patterns. Homogeneous ensembles of magnetosomes onto silicon and carbon surfaces are composed of elongated structures in the form of wide chains that cover a large area of the substrates. Transmission electron microscopy image and off-axis electron holography showed the map of the stray magnetic fields produced by these assemblies. The induced magnetic anisotropy was analyzed by measuring the hysteresis loops of the assemblies at different angles in a magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometer. The evolution of the coercive field and remanence verified the presence of well-defined patterns. The experimental results were analyzed on the based of a biaxial model