Magnetic Levitation in Chemistry, Materials Science, and Biochemistry

Abstract

All matter has density. The recorded uses of density to characterize matter date back to as early as ca. 250 BC, when Archimedes was believed to have solved “The Puzzle of The King's Crown” using density.[1] Today, measurements of density are used to separate and characterize a range of materials (including cells and organisms), and their chemical and/or physical changes in time and space. This Review describes a density‐based technique—magnetic levitation (which we call “MagLev” for simplicity)—developed and used to solve problems in the fields of chemistry, materials science, and biochemistry. MagLev has two principal characteristics—simplicity, and applicability to a wide range of materials—that make it useful for a number of applications (for example, characterization of materials, quality control of manufactured plastic parts, self‐assembly of objects in 3D, separation of different types of biological cells, and bioanalyses). Its simplicity and breadth of applications also enable its use in low‐resource settings (for example—in economically developing regions—in evaluating water/food quality, and in diagnosing disease).

Scaffold-free and label-free biofabrication technology using levitational assembly in a high magnetic field

“…Since then, principles of magnetic levitation are being used successfully and broadly in different areas of technology and industries [3]. In 1997, Geim performed the diamagnetic levitation of a living organism (frog) in the air at the High Field Magnet Laboratory at Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, which was a breakthrough in the area of magnetic levitation [4].…”

Recent Advances in Continuous-Flow Particle Manipulations Using Magnetic Fluids

“…We will not review here the fundamentals and applications of this flow-free particle manipulation technique. Readers interested in this topic may refer to the recent review articles from Turker and Arslan-Yildiz [70], Gao et al [24], and Ge et al [71] for more details.…”

“…Aqueous solutions of simple paramagnet salts such as Mn(II) (e.g., MnCl 2 ) and Gd(III) (e.g., GdCl 3 ) are not compatible to biological applications [71]. In contrast, aqueous solutions of chelates of Mn(II) (e.g., Mn⋅EDTA) and Gd(III) (e.g., Gd⋅DTPA) become biocompatible [157,158].…”

Evolving Magnetically Levitated Plasma Proteins Detects Opioid Use Disorder as a Model Disease

“…Recently, it was proposed that biological species (e.g., organelles, cells, virus, bacteria, etc.) can be separated using the Maglev system due to the differences in their densities . It was shown that specific diseases show characteristic changes in density for particular types of cells.…”

“…can be separated using the Maglev system due to the differences in their densities. [3] It was shown that specific diseases show characteristic changes in density for particular types of cells. Tasoglu and co-workers reported a portable and self-contained device offering a great potential for rapid and on site sample analysis such as white blood cell cytometry.…”