(285d) Self-Assembly and Sedimentation of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Enhanced Quadrupole Magnetic Sorters
AIChE Annual Meeting
2021
2021 Annual Meeting
Separations Division
Advances in Fluid Particle Separations
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - 1:45pm to 2:05pm
In this work, we report, the magnetic aggregation and sedimentation of 5, 15 and 30 nm particles by applying fields and gradients perpendicular to gravity. The particles suspensions were filled in glass channels and then placed in the separators, where the magnetic field was generated by permanent magnets arranged in quadrupolar configurations (QMS). Different conditions were studied and multiple variables were evaluated, including the particle size, the initial SPIONs concentration, the temperature, the magnetic field gradient and operation time.
Our experimental data suggest that particles agglomerated in chains due to dipole-dipole interactions, while the magnetic force promoted their movement to the glass channel wall where has the highest magnetic flux density. They also settled down as a result of the higher gravitational force exerted on the particle clusters. Furthermore, the particle separation was enhanced by decreasing the temperature and increasing the particle concentration. Finally, the separation process was observed to happen in less than 5 min, which is encouraging considering the long operation times (up to days) necessary to separate particle of similar sizes in LGMS columns.