Besenhard, Maximilian O;
Storozhuk, Liudmyla;
LaGrow, Alec P;
Panariello, Luca;
Maney, Adam;
Pal, Sayan;
Kiefer, Céline;
... Gavriilidis, Asterios; + view all
(2023)
High temperature flow synthesis of iron oxide Nanoparticles: Size tuning via reactor engineering.
Chemical Engineering Journal
, 473
, Article 144542. 10.1016/j.cej.2023.144542.
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Abstract
Batch thermal decomposition syntheses of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) provide precise control of particle properties, but their scalability and reproducibility is challenging. This is addressed in this work via a versatile gram-per-day scale high temperature flow reactor with adjustable temperature profiles through three individual stages operated between 180 °C and 280 °C. The tuneable temperature profiles in combination with self-seeded growth methods made it possible to synthesise IONPs between 2 and 17 nm (a size increase that corresponds to a >600 fold particle volume increase) at production rates of several gIONP per day. The precursor solutions contained only iron(III) acetylacetonate in a polyol solvent and no nucleation or growth inhibitors, oxidation or reducing agents, ligands or others were added. This broad size range covers most biomedical applications and is of special interest for T1 MRI contrast agents (2–5 nm), as well as for magnetic hyperthermia cancer therapy (>10 nm). The potential of the IONPs produced in such applications was demonstrated by the small IONPs’ longitudinal relaxivity >16 mM−1 s−1 at a transversal/longitudinal relaxivity ratio < 2.5 and the large IONPs’ increase in the specific absorption rate to 180 W/gFe. In addition, the polyol method employed allowed for simple ligand exchange with biocompatible sodium tripolyphosphate to make the IONPs stable in water, thus rendering them suitable for biomedical applications. The continuous high temperature process presented shows how to control the particle size not via the chemistry (e.g., chemical additives affecting the particle size through the surface chemistry), but engineering parameters, i.e., reactor temperature profiles, reagent addition sequences and seeded growth strategies.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | High temperature flow synthesis of iron oxide Nanoparticles: Size tuning via reactor engineering |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cej.2023.144542 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.144542 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Continuous synthesis, Flow chemistry, Thermal decomposition, Iron oxide nanoparticles, High temperature reactor |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > London Centre for Nanotechnology |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10172840 |
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