Thermal Properties of Magnetic Nanoparticles In External AC Magnetic Field

This work studies thermal properties of magnetic nanoparticles in an external ac magnetic field. Dried iron and cobalt nanoparticles were prepared by thermal decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)5) and dicobalt octacarbonyl (Co2(CO)8), triscobalt nona(carbonyl)chloride (Co3(CO)9Cl), or tetracaobalt dodecacarbonyl (Co4(CO)12) [1]. The samples had different mean diameters: 5.6 - 21.4 nm for iron and 6.5 - 19.4 nm for cobalt. Each sample was exposed to ac magnetic field and the increase in temperature of the sample was measured. Results were analyzed to find the critical diameters for the transitions from multi-domain to single-domain and from single-domain to superparamagnetic regime. The nanoparticles were analyzed for their possible application for hyperthermia cancer treatment. Due to this application and to broaden the understanding of how magnetic nanoparticles would influence human tissue, a mathematical model written in Matlab and based on bio-heat equations was introduced