Size-dependent magnetic and magnetothermal properties of gadolinium silicide nanoparticles

Muhammad Nauman; Muhammad Hisham Alnasir; Muhammad Asif Hamayun; YiXu Wang; Michael Shatruk; Sadia Manzoor

doi:10.1039/d0ra05394e

Size-dependent magnetic and magnetothermal properties of gadolinium silicide nanoparticles

RSC Adv. 2020 Jul 29;10(47):28383-28389. doi: 10.1039/d0ra05394e. eCollection 2020 Jul 27.

Authors

Muhammad Nauman^{1

2}, Muhammad Hisham Alnasir², Muhammad Asif Hamayun², YiXu Wang^{3

4}, Michael Shatruk³, Sadia Manzoor²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University Daegu 41566 Korea nouman.kakakhail@gmail.com.
² Department of Physics, COMSATS University Islamabad 45550 Pakistan sadia_manzoor@comsats.edu.pk.
³ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University Tallahassee FL 32306 USA.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing Beijing 100083 P. R. China.

Abstract

Gadolinium silicide (Gd₅Si₄) nanoparticles are an interesting class of materials due to their high magnetization, low Curie temperature, low toxicity in biological environments and their multifunctional properties. We report the magnetic and magnetothermal properties of gadolinium silicide (Gd₅Si₄) nanoparticles prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling of arc melted bulk ingots of the compound. Using different milling times and speeds, a wide range of crystallite sizes (13-43 nm) could be produced and a reduction in Curie temperature (T _C) from 340 K to 317 K was achieved, making these nanoparticles suitable for self-controlled magnetic hyperthermia applications. The magnetothermal effect was measured in applied AC magnetic fields of amplitude 164-239 Oe and frequencies 163-519 kHz. All particles showed magnetic heating with a strong dependence of the specific absorption rate (SAR) on the average crystallite size. The highest SAR of 3.7 W g^-1 was measured for 43 nm sized nanoparticles of Gd₅Si₄. The high SAR and low T _C, (within the therapeutic range for magnetothermal therapy) makes the Gd₅Si₄ behave like self-regulating heat switches that would be suitable for self-controlled magnetic hyperthermia applications after biocompatibility and cytotoxicity tests.