Dipolar Attraction of Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles

TL;DR

This study challenges the common belief that superparamagnetic nanoparticles cannot aggregate due to rapid magnetic moment fluctuations, showing instead that magnetic dipolar attraction can promote aggregation regardless of superparamagnetic behavior.

Contribution

Using Langevin dynamics simulations, the paper demonstrates that magnetic dipolar attraction in superparamagnetic nanoparticles is not hindered by superparamagnetism, contradicting previous assumptions.

Findings

Magnetic dipolar attraction leads to aggregation independent of superparamagnetic state.

Neither the dimer debonding time nor the average magnetic force depends on magnetocrystalline anisotropy.

Superparamagnetism and colloidal stability are correlated but not causally related.

Abstract

For superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SMNPs), it is often claimed that the rapid thermal fluctuations of their magnetic moments negates the magnetic dipolar attraction, hence preventing aggregation in liquid suspension. However we find that this is a misconception. Using Langevin dynamics, we simulate SMNP pairs and the dimer clusters they form which is the simplest case of aggregation. To quantify the tendency to aggregate, we introduce the dimer debonding time and calculate the average magnetic force of attraction which results from correlations in the fluctuating moments. Neither quantity has any dependence on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, which determines the rate of superparamagnetic reversals, and comparing with computed N\'eel relaxation times we show that this holds for both blocked and superparamagnetic particles. These results imply that the phenomenon of superparamagnetism does not affect aggregation. Because the key dimensionless parameter for the N\'eel relaxation of a lone SMNP and the one for magnetic attraction have the same size and temperature scaling, there is a strong correlation between superparamagnetism and colloidal stability, as observed experimentally, but no causal relation.