Effect of iron oxide loading on magnetoferritin structure in solution as revealed by SAXS and SANS.

Synthetic biological macromolecule of magnetoferritin containing an iron oxide core inside a protein shell (apoferritin) is prepared with different content of iron. Its structure in aqueous solution is analysed by small-angle synchrotron X-ray (SAXS) and neutron (SANS) scattering. The loading factor (LF) defined as the average number of iron atoms per protein is varied up to LF=800. With an increase of the LF, the scattering curves exhibit a relative increase in the total scattered intensity, a partial smearing and a shift of the match point in the SANS contrast variation data. The analysis shows an increase in the polydispersity of the proteins and a corresponding effective increase in the relative content of magnetic material against the protein moiety of the shell with the LF growth. At LFs above ∼150, the apoferritin shell undergoes structural changes, which is strongly indicative of the fact that the shell stability is affected by iron oxide presence.

The Faraday effect of natural and artificial ferritins.

Measurements of the Faraday rotation at room temperature over the light wavelength range of 300-680 nm for horse spleen ferritin (HSF), magnetoferritin with different loading factors (LFs) and nanoscale magnetite and Fe(2)O(3) suspensions are reported. The Faraday rotation and the magnetization of the materials studied present similar magnetic field dependences and are characteristic of a superparamagnetic system. The dependence of the Faraday rotation on the magnetic field is described, excluding HSF and Fe(2)O(3), by a Langevin function with a log-normal distribution of the particle size allowing the core diameters of the substances studied to be calculated. It was found that the specific Verdet constant depends linearly on the LF. Differences in the Faraday rotation spectra and their magnetic field dependences allow discrimination between magnetoferritin with maghemite and magnetite cores which can be very useful in biomedicine.

Effect of pressure on the magnetic properties of TM(3)[Cr(CN)(6)](2)·12H(2)O.

We present the results of magnetization and AC susceptibility measurements performed on ferrimagnetic Mn(3)(2+)[Cr(III)(CN)(6)](2)·12H(2)O and ferromagnetic Ni(3)(2+)[Cr(III)(CN)(6)](2)·12H(2)O systems under pressures up to 0.9 GPa in a commercial SQUID magnetometer. The magnetization process is affected by pressure: magnetization saturates at higher magnetic field, saturated magnetization µ(s) of Ni(3)[Cr(CN)(6)](2) is reduced and almost unaffected for Mn(3)[Cr(CN)(6)](2) at low temperatures. The Curie temperature T(C) of Mn(3)[Cr(CN)(6)](2) increases with the applied pressure, ΔT(C)/Δp = 25.5 K GPa(-1), due to a strengthened super-exchange antiferromagnetic interaction J(AF), but it is not affected significantly in the case of Ni(3)[Cr(CN)(6)](2) with a dominant ferromagnetic J(F) super-exchange interaction. The increase in the J(AF) interaction is attributed to the enhanced value of the single electron overlapping integral S and the energy gap Δ of the mixed molecular orbitals t(2g) (Mn(2+)) and t(2g) (Cr(III)) induced by pressure.