An investigation on the optimum conditions of synthesizing a magnetite based ferrofluid as MRI contrast agent using Taguchi method

In this study, some stabilized magnetite based ferrofluids were synthesized using Dextran as a stabilizing agent. In order to achieve optimum experimental conditions for synthesizing ferrofluids as MRI contrast agents, the Taguchi method was used. This approach was employed to design and minimize the number of required experiments. By using the Taguchi orthogonal (L16) array, four parameters including solution temperature and alkalinity, reaction temperature and stirring rate were selected at four predetermined levels for 16 experiments. Synthesizing processes established based on this set of experimental conditions were carried out and the obtained ferrofluids were characterized using PCS, VSM, TEM and FT-IR techniques. The obtained results were used and analyzed through the Qualitek-4 software and the proposed optimum experimental conditions were used for synthesizing the desired sample. Finally, this sample was used as a potential MRI contrast agent for imaging lymph nodes.