Design and construction of a lab-made calorimetric system for specific loss power (SLP) measurements in suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract The specific loss power (SLP) is a figure of merit in nanomagnetism, which allows to classify systems of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) according to their capability to dissipate heating power in response to the energy absorbed from an alternating magnetic field (AMF) at radiofrequencies. SLP magnitude is relevant in biological applications of MNPs, such as nanomedicine, where the thermal energy released by these nanostructures can be used to produce apoptosis in cancer cells, becoming a promising alternative for the treatment of malignant tumors. In this work we present details of the design and construction of a lab-made electromagnetic system to perform SLP measurements in systems of MNPs. The system is composed by an actuation stage, which generates the AMF to excite the sample, a thermal insulation stage between the sample and its surroundings, and two sensing stages: the first one for measuring the magnetic field applied to the sample and the second one for measuring the changes of temperature of the sample. The system developed allows to reach AMFs around 7.7 kA m−1 in the center of the actuation coil, operating at 260 kHz and with a power consumption less than 150 W. The architecture of the system allows the automatization and control of SLP measurements from remote places through the IEEE 488 bus available in the power source and a graphic interface developed in LabVIEW software, which allows to visualize temperature versus time measurements, control the magnetic field amplitude and store the data in a public folder available in the cloud. Some results are presented, where the system is employed to measure the SLP of a colloidal suspension of MNPs of maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) stabilized with sodium polyacrylate. The results obtained show a satisfactory performance of the device to measure the SLP of samples of MNPs for different purposes.