Experimental Comparison of Methods to Evaluate Heat Generated by Magnetic Nanofluids Exposed to Alternating Magnetic Fields

Abstract

The paper aims to compare different methods able to estimate the specific loss power (SLP) generated by three different types of magnetic nanoparticles, MNPs, dispersed in a suspension fluid, e.g., octane or water. The nanoparticles were characterized morphologically in terms of shape and size, chemically for composition and their physical properties like magnetization and SLP were studied. We evidenced the differences in SLP evaluation due to the applied method, particularly in the presence of thermally induced phenomena such as aggregation or precipitation of MNPs that can affect the heating curve of the samples. Then, the SLP determination methods less sensible to this phenomenon appear to be the ones that use the initial slope when the sample is in quasi-adiabatic condition. Finally, we propose a comparison of those methods based on the pros and cons of their use for the SLP determination of magnetic nanofluids. In particular, the analysis of the behavior of the heating curve is useful to evaluate the useful amplitude of the interval analysis for the initial slope methods.