Magnetic nanoparticles in an aqueous suspension can form linear chains when exposed to a magnetic field. The formation of chains has the potential to affect biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticle suspensions such as drug delivery and MRI contrast enhancement.
As part of my research, I studied the behaviour of chain formation for different magnetic nanoparticle suspension parameters including concentration and the net magnetic moments through supercomputer simulation. Additionally, I developed a particle-locking technique that enabled me to directly correlate chain structure and proton transverse relaxivity over a time series.