Partic. vol. 26 pp. 114-117 (June 2016)
doi: 10.1016/j.partic.2015.11.001

Short communication

Rapid determination of iron oxide content in magnetically modified particulate materials

Ivo Safarik^{a, b, c, *}, Leona Nydlova^a, Kristyna Pospiskova^b, Eva Baldikova^{a, d}, Zdenka Maderova^a, Mirka Safarikova^{a, c}

ivosaf@yahoo.com

Abstract

Magnetically responsive composite materials have been used in interesting applications in various areas of bioscience, biotechnology, and environmental technology. In this work, a simple method to determine the amount of magnetic iron oxide nano- and microparticles attached to magnetically-modified particulate diamagnetic materials has been developed using a commercially available magnetic permeability meter. The procedure is fast and enables dry particulate magnetically modified materials to be analysed without any modification or pretreatment. We show that the magnetic permeability can be measured for materials containing up to 20% magnetic iron oxide. The magnetic permeability measurements are highly reproducible.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Magnetic permeability meter; Magnetic iron oxides; Magnetically modified materials