Investigation of the Interaction of Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles and Nonmagnetic Nanoparticles with Cell Membranes

• Main Author: Williams, Conrad M
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: BIPOLAR SYSTEMS; CELL MEMBRANES; CELLS; Electricity and Magnetism; FERROFLUIDS; FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS; FLUIDS; INTERACTIONS; MAGNETIC FIELDS; MAGNETIC PROPERTIES; MAGNETITE; MAGNETIZATION; MEMBRANES; NANOPARTICLES; PARAMAGNETIC MATERIALS; PARTICLES; Plasma Physics and Magnetohydrodynamics; PLASMA SPRAYING; SUPERPARAMAGNETIC; SYNTHESIS(CHEMISTRY)

The investigation on the interaction of superparamagnetic nanoparticles with cell membranes was divided into three phases: the synthesis and characterization of the magnetic and structural properties, surface functionalization of the particles, and ferrofluid studies of the particles in the presence of a slowly varying magnetic field. Two methods were explored to synthesize the superparamagnetic nanoparticles used in this investigation to achieve a distribution in particle size. Chemical synthesis and microwave plasma spray, a proprietary technique developed by Materials Modification, Incorporated (MMI). Chemical synthesis yielded the most uniform particle size distribution in the 4-14 nm range, while plasma spray was more successful in synthesizing particles in the 14-40 nm range. Most of the discussions in this report will be centered on the chemical synthesis process. The magnetic and fluid studies on the nanoparticles showed excellent superparamagnetic behavior. The surface functionalization phase focused on binding bipolar organic compounds to nanoparticles to make them hydrophilic as a precursor to cell membrane interaction studies. Theoretical techniques were developed to analyze the magnetization results will be presented in thesis report.