A Guideline for Effectively Synthesizing and Characterizing Magnetic Nanoparticles for Advancing Nanobiotechnology: A Review

Abstract

The remarkable multimodal functionalities of magnetic nanoparticles, conferred by their size and morphology, are very important in resolving challenges slowing the progression of nanobiotechnology. The rapid and revolutionary expansion of magnetic nanoparticles in nanobiotechnology, especially in nanomedicine and therapeutics, demands an overview of the current state of the art for synthesizing and characterizing magnetic nanoparticles. In this review, we explain the synthesis routes for tailoring the size, morphology, composition, and magnetic properties of the magnetic nanoparticles. The pros and cons of the most popularly used characterization techniques for determining the aforementioned parameters, with particular focus on nanomedicine and biosensing applications, are discussed. Moreover, we provide numerous biomedical applications and highlight their challenges and requirements that must be met using the magnetic nanoparticles to achieve the most effective outcomes. Finally, we conclude this review by providing an insight towards resolving the persisting challenges and the future directions. This review should be an excellent source of information for beginners in this field who are looking for a groundbreaking start but they have been overwhelmed by the volume of literature.

Projection method as a probe for multiplexing/demultiplexing of magnetically enriched biological tissues

“…To suppress these substantial obstacles, we propose a magnetic measurement technique that signicantly facilitates the detection of MNWs signature regardless of their surroundings. 10,38,39 Along with this, we establish a technique to quantitatively demultiplex the signature of multiple types of MNWs even though the individual signatures overlap.…”

Facile decoding of quantitative signatures from magnetic nanowire arrays

“…Of our first two signatures, the projections onto the H u and H c axes, P Hu is the more effective signature for most combinations with the largest error being 50% overestimation of 208 nm MNWs in a combination with 55 nm MNWs. This may seem like a large error, but many multiplexed nanoparticle diagnoses to date use log scales to plot populations due to large potential offsets 5 . For example, fluorescence labels have large errors due to background lighting and bleaching 4 .…”

“…Italic emphasis highlighting was used to show which MNW combinations-signature pairs measured the volume ratio within a factor of 2 (corresponding to + /− 100% error). Most commonly used nanobarcodes, especially in the nanomedicine or biology, use optical nanobarcodes such as fluorescent dyes or quantum dots nanoparticles 4,5,13,15,51 . These barcode methods typically plot calculated values and errors on log scales, where a factor of 2 is quite small.…”

“…Magnetic nanowires (MNWs) are increasingly impacting biomedical applications 1 – 6 , environmental sciences 7 , 8 , and quantum devices 9 – 12 . A unique benefit of MNWs is that they can be excited indirectly using an external field, regardless of their surroundings 5 , 13 – 15 . Especially in biomedical applications, it is essential to locate, identify, and quantify the targeted MNWs, while using multiple types of MNWs for enriching and multiplexing biological entities 4 , 15 – 17 .…”

Unlocking the decoding of unknown magnetic nanobarcode signatures

“…As a result, numerous types of nanobarcodes, such as photonic nanoparticles [2][3][4], magnetic nanoparticles [5][6][7], and magneto-optic nanoparticles [8], have emerged to meet the desired requirements for individual applications. The synthesis approach of nanobarcodes can allow one to engineer multiple properties, such as absorption/emission spectra of photonic nanoparticles [9][10][11], coercivity and saturation magnetization of magnetic nanoparticles [7,[12][13][14][15], to leverage their encoding through various synthesis strategies, both chemical and physical strategies [16][17][18][19], that feasibly tune properties. However, producing nanobarcodes with diverse encodings does not necessarily guarantee their successful decoding.…”