Abstract/Summary

While magnetic nanoparticles suspended in Newtonian solvents (ferrofluids) have been intensively studied in recent years, the effects of viscoelasticity of the surrounding medium on the nanoparticle dynamics are much less understood. Here we investigate a mesoscopic model for the orientational dynamics of isolated magnetic nanoparticles subject to external fields, viscous and viscoelastic friction as well as the corresponding random torques. We solve the model analytically in the overdamped limit for weak viscoelasticity. By comparison to Brownian Dynamics simulations we establish the limits of validity of the analytical solution. We find that viscoelasticity does not only slow down the magnetization relaxation, shift the peak of the imaginary magnetic susceptibility $\chi''$ to lower frequencies and increase the magnetoviscosity, it also leads to non-exponential relaxation and a broadening of $\chi''$. The model we study also allows to test a recent proposal for using magnetic susceptibility measurements as a nanorheological tool using a variant of the Germant-DiMarzio-Bishop relation. We find for the present model and certain parameter ranges that the relation of the magnetic susceptibility to the shear modulus is satisfied to a good approximation.