Influences of fluid and system design parameters on hydrodynamically driven low gradient magnetic separation of magnetic nanoparticles
Tan, Yee Win (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman)
Gunn, Priscilla Fong Ern (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman)
Ng, Weiming (Universiti Sains Malaysia)
Leong, Sim Siong (Universiti Sains Malaysia)
Toh, Pey Yi (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman)
Camacho Castro, Juan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Faraudo, Jordi (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona)
Lim, JitKang (Universiti Sains Malaysia)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	The migration of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in solution under magnetic field gradients (magnetophoresis) is an essential step in many separation processes in the field of chemical and other engineering disciplines. Previous works show that weak magnetic gradients generated by handheld magnets are enough to induce substantial magnetophoresis of MNPs, due to hydrodynamic effect (magnetophoresis induced convection). However, it is not known how the properties of the MNPs and the fluid influence the significance of this hydrodynamic effect. In this work, we study experimentally and by theoretical simulations how the fluid viscosity, fluid flow confinement and magnetic field distribution affect the intensity of magnetophoresis induced convection. The theoretical simulation conducted in this study is based on the theoretical framework established in our previous works on the hydrodynamic effect of LGMS process involving dilute colloidal MNP system. We show that the intensity of the induced convection increases by lowering the viscosity, decreasing the geometrical confinement and increasing the magnetic field gradient. Also, we show that the effect of all these variables can be characterized by the value of the dimensionless magnetic Grashof number Grm. These findings are crucial in the design, optimi zation and intensification of LGMS processes for real time applications.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-000917-S
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Hydrodynamic effect ; Low gradient magnetic separation (LGMS) ; Magnetic nanoparticles ; Magnetophoresis ; Magnetophoresis induced convection
Published in:	Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification, Vol. 199 (May 2024) , art. 109768, ISSN 0255-2701

DOI: 10.1016/j.cep.2024.109768

Available from: 2026-05-31 Postprint

Available from: 2026-05-31 Supplementary material

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Grup de Propietats de Transport a la Nanoescala
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles