Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as MRI contrast agents - a comprehensive physical and theoretical study

Magnetite nanoparticles, especially superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, are established contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetosomes, which are magnetite nanoparticles of biological origin, have been shown to have better contrast properties than current formulations possibly because of their larger size and high monodispersity. Here, we present an integrated study of magnetosomes and synthetic magnetite nanoparticles of varying size, hence, magnetic properties. We investigate not only the relaxation times as a measure for the contrast properties of these particles, but also their cytotoxicity and demonstrate the higher contrast of the larger particles. A theoretical model is presented that enables us to simulate the R2=R1 ratio of a contrast agent and con�rm that larger particles offer higher contrast. The results from this study illustrate the possibility to obtain colloidal stability of large magnetic nanoparticles for magnetic resonance imaging applications and serve as an impetus for a more quantitative description of the contrast effect as a function of the size

Formation of Magnetite Nanoparticles at Low Temperature From Superparamagnetic to Stable Single Domain Particles

The room temperature co-precipitation of ferrous and ferric iron under alkaline conditions typically yields superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles below a size of 20 nm. We show that at pH  =  9 this method can be tuned to grow larger particles with single stable domain magnetic (> 20–30 nm) or even multi-domain behavior (> 80 nm). The crystal growth kinetics resembles surprisingly observations of magnetite crystal formation in magnetotactic bacteria. The physicochemical parameters required for mineralization in these organisms are unknown, therefore this study provides insight into which conditions could possibly prevail in the biomineralizing vesicle compartments (magnetosomes) of these bacteria

Paleoenvironmental studies on Lake Bergsee, Black Forest, Germany.

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Quantitative determination of the number of surface active sites and the turnover frequency for methanol oxidation over bulk metal vanadates

The present work investigates the number and nature of the surface active sites, selectivity and turnover frequency towards methanol selective oxidation of a series of bulk metal vanadates. The catalysts were synthesized through an organic route and characterized by laser Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and specific surface area analysis (BET). The number of surface active sites (N-s) was determined by measuring the concentration of surface methoxy species adsorbed on the catalysts exposed to an atmosphere of 2000 ppm of methanol in helium at 100 degreesC. The specific activity values (TOFs) were calculated by normalizing the methanol oxidation reaction rate by the number of surface active sites probed by methanol chemisorption. The comparison of the methanol oxidation products distribution from bulk metal vanadates, pure V2O5 and corresponding metal oxides NiO, MnO, etc.) strongly suggests that the metal vanadate catalysts consist of only surface, vanadium oxide sites. The comparison of the TOF values demonstrated that bulk metal vanadates possess similar activity to monolayer vanadium oxide supported catalysts and are more active than bulk metal molybdates for methanol selective oxidation. Moreover, bulk metal vanadates are as active and selective as the commercial MoO3/Fe-2(MoO4)(3) catalysts at high methanol conversion. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved