Magnetic Core-Size Distribution of Magnetic Nanoparticles Estimated from Magnetization, AC Susceptibility, and Relaxation Measurements

The magnetic core-size distribution of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) was estimated from three independent measurements, i.e., magnetization, ac susceptibility (ACS), and magnetic relaxation (MRX). First, distribution of magnetic moment m in MNP sample was estimated by analyzing the static magnetization (M - H) curve of the MNP sample in suspension. Next, distribution of anisotropy energy E was estimated by analyzing the ACS of immobilized MNP sample measured from 10 Hz to 1 MHz. The ACS measurement in much lower frequency range was substituted by the MRX measurement. MRX of immobilized MNP sample was measured from 2 to 10⁴ s, corresponding to the frequency range from 10^-4 to 0.5 Hz in ACS measurement. The relaxation curve was analyzed using a newly developed analytical method to estimate the E distribution of the MNPs in the range of large E values. Then, the estimated distributions of m and E were transferred to the distributions of magnetic core size. Core-size distributions obtained from m and E distributions reasonably agreed with each other. Namely, we obtained similar core-size distribution from static and dynamic properties of MNP sample, confirming the validity of the present method. Therefore, the present method can be useful to estimate the core-size distribution of MNP sample.