Purdue Research Foundation

Fritz J Friedlaender

Makoto Takayasu

Leon Petrakis

Jiann-Yang Hwang

A method and apparatus are disclosed for magnetically separating particles from a liquid, which particles include diamagnetic, non-magnetic and/or very weakly paramagnetic particles. To achieve separation, the magnetic susceptibility of the liquid is modified, such as through dissolving a paramagnetic substance (such as manganese chloride) or a diamagnetic substance (such as bismuth diiodide) in a liquid (such as water, alcohol or glycerine), after which the modified paramagnetic liquid is passed through a filter formed of magnetic material in a magnetic field with the filter being preferably formed of ferromagnetic material establishing a high gradient magnetic filter. Selective filtering of particles is also provided by modifying the susceptibility of the liquid to be identical to that of one group of particles included in the liquid but different from a second group of particles, whereby the one group of particles and the liquid can be passed through the filter while the second group of particles is separated from the liquid by the filter.

Method and apparatus for magnetically separating particles from a liquid

A method of magnetically separating particles having different magnetic susceptibilities. A magnetic field is established in a colloidal suspension of magnetic particles which distribute to form a magnetic susceptibility gradient. The particles to be separated are introduced into the colloidal suspension. The introduced particles migrate along the magnetic susceptibility gradient to different regions having approximately the same magnetic susceptibilities as the introduced particles.

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West Lafayette, IN, United States of America

Fritz J Friedlaender