Magnetic characterization of noninteracting, randomly oriented, nanometer-scale ferrimagnetic particles

Studying the magnetic properties of ultrafine nanometer-scale ferrimagnetic particles (<10 nm) is vital to our understanding of superparamagnetism and its applications to environmental magnetism, biogeomagnetism, iron biomineralization, and biomedical technology. However, magnetic properties of the ultrafine nanometer-sized ferrimagnetic grains are very poorly constrained because of ambiguities caused by particle magnetostatic interactions and unknown size distributions. To resolve these problems, we synthesized magnetoferritins using the recombinant human H chain ferritin (HFn). These ferrimagnetic HFn were further purified through size exclusion chromatography to obtain monodispersed ferrimagnetic HFn. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the purified ferrimagnetic HFn are monodispersed and each consists of an iron oxide core (magnetite or maghemite) with an average core diameter of 3.9 +/- 1.1 nm imbedded in an intact protein shell. The R value of the Wohlfarth-Cisowski test measured at 5 K is 0.5, indicating no magnetostatic interactions. The saturation isothermal remanent magnetization acquired at 5 K decreased rapidly with increasing temperature with a median unblocking temperature of 8.2 K. The preexponential frequency factor f(0) determined by AC susceptibility is (9.2 +/- 7.9) x 1010 Hz. The extrapolated M-rs/M-s and B-cr/B-c at 0 K are 0.5 and 1.12, respectively, suggesting that the ferrimagnetic HFn cores are dominated by uniaxial anisotropy. The calculated effective magnetic anisotropy energy constant K-eff = 1.2 x 10(5) J/m(3), which is larger than previously reported values for bulk magnetite and/or maghemite or magnetoferritin and is attributed to the effect of surface anisotropy. These data provide useful insights into superparamagnetism as well as biomineralization of ultrafine ferrimagnetic particles.