Z. Mitróová | Searcharxiv

arXiv2017

Effect of iron oxide loading on magnetoferritin structure in solution as revealed by SAXS and SANS

Synthetic biological macromolecule of magnetoferritin containing an iron oxide core inside a protein shell (apoferritin) is prepared with different content of iron. Its structure in aqueous solution is analyzed by small-angle synchrotron X-ray (SAXS) and neutron (SANS) scattering. The loading factor (LF) defined as the average number of iron atoms per protein is varied up to LF=800. With an increase of the LF, the scattering curves exhibit a relative increase in the total scattered intensity, a partial smearing and a shift of the match point in the SANS contrast variation data. The analysis shows an increase in the polydispersity of the proteins and a corresponding effective increase in the relative content of magnetic material against the protein moiety of the shell with the LF growth. At LFs above ~150, the apoferritin shell undergoes structural changes, which is strongly indicative of the fact that the shell stability is affected by iron oxide presence.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2014

High concentration ferronematics in low magnetic fields

We investigated experimentally the magneto-optical and dielectric properties of magnetic-nanoparticle-doped nematic liquid crystals (ferronematics). Our studies focus on the effect of the very small orienting bias magnetic field $B_{bias}$, and that of the nematic director pretilt at the boundary surfaces in our systems sensitive to low magnetic fields. Based on the results we assert that $B_{bias}$ is not necessarily required for a detectable response to low magnetic fields, and that the initial pretilt, as well as the aggregation of the nanoparticles play an important (though not yet explored enough) role.

cond-mat.soft↗