Advances in the Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Sensing

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are of high significance in sensing as they provide viable solutions to the enduring challenges related to lower detection limits and nonspecific effects. The rapid expansion in the applications of MNPs creates a need to overview the current state of the field of MNPs for sensing applications. In this review, the trends and concepts in the literature are critically appraised in terms of the opportunities and limitations of MNPs used for the most advanced sensing applications. The latest progress in MNP sensor technologies is overviewed with a focus on MNP structures and properties, as well as the strategies of incorporating these MNPs into devices. By looking at recent synthetic advancements, and the key challenges that face nanoparticle‐based sensors, this review aims to outline how to design, synthesize, and use MNPs to make the most effective and sensitive sensors.     

Magneto‐Controllable Capture and Release of Cancer Cells by Using a Micropillar Device Decorated with Graphite Oxide‐Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles

Aiming to highly efficient capture and analysis of circulating tumor cells, a micropillar device decorated with graphite oxide‐coated magnetic nanoparticles is developed for magneto‐controllable capture and release of cancer cells. Graphite oxide‐coated, Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are synthesized by solution mixing and functionalized with a specific antibody, following by the immobilization of such modified MNPs on our designed micropillar device. For the proof‐of‐concept study, a HCT116 colorectal cancer cell line is employed to exam the capture efficiency. Under magnetic field manipulation, the high density packing of antibody‐modified MNPs on the micropillars increases the local concentration of antibody, as well as the topographic interactions between cancer cells and micropillar surfaces. The flow rate and the micropillar geometry are optimized by studying their effects on capture efficiency. Then, a different number of HCT116 cells spiked in two kinds of cell suspension are investigated, yielding capture efficiency >70% in culture medium and >40% in blood sample, respectively. Moreover, the captured HCT116 cells are able to be released from the micropillars with a saturated efficiency of 92.9% upon the removal of applied magnetic field and it is found that 78% of the released cancer cells are viable, making them suitable for subsequent biological analysis.     

纳米碳包铁磁性颗粒的制备及表征

采用激光感应复合加热蒸发合成法,以CH4为碳源,制备了大量具有壳核结构的纳米碳包铁颗粒,通过透射电子显微镜(TEM)、X射线衍射分析仪(XRD)、能量弥散X射线分析(EDX)等对颗粒进行了表征,并利用动态磁滞回线测定仪测定了纳米颗粒的磁化强度等磁性能.结果表明,利用该方法制备的碳包铁纳米颗粒的平均粒径为25nm,表面碳层厚度为5nm左右,具有铁磁性能.纳米碳包铁颗粒将作为磁性载体在医学细胞分离、细胞染色、靶向用药、定向治疗、肿瘤热疗等方面具有广阔的应用前景.     

铁纳米粉体的磁性能研究

为了研究铁纳米粉体材料与常规材料在磁性能方面的不同,采用阳极弧放电等离子体方法制备了铁纳米粉体。利用X射线衍射(XRD)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)和振动样品磁强计(VSM)等测试手段对样品的形貌、晶体结构、粒度、磁性能进行表征,并对振动样品磁强计测量静态磁特性的原理进行了分析。测试结果表明,样品呈规则的球形链状分布,表面光洁,平均粒径为39nm,粒径范围分布区间窄,晶体结构为bcc结构的晶态;纳米结构材料与常规材料在磁结构上有差别,铁纳米粉体的饱和磁化强度Ms为53emu/g,剩余磁化强度Mr为1.5emu/g,矫顽力Hc为32.2Oe。     

Microfluidic Designing Microgels Containing Highly Concentrated Gold Nanoparticles for SERS Analysis of Complex Fluids

Surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is one of the most promising methods to detect small molecules for point‐of‐care analysis as it is rapid, nondestructive, label‐free, and applicable for aqueous samples. Here, microgels containing highly concentrated yet evenly dispersed gold nanoparticles are designed to provide SERS substrates that simultaneously achieve contamination‐free metal surfaces and high signal enhancement and reproducibility. With capillary microfluidic devices, water‐in‐oil‐in‐water (W/O/W) double‐emulsion drops are prepared to contain gold nanoparticles and hydrogel precursors in innermost drop. Under hypertonic condition, water is selectively pumped out from the innermost drops. Therefore, gold nanoparticles are gently concentrated without forming aggregates, which are then captured by hydrogel matrix. The resulting microgels have a concentration of gold nanoparticles ≈30 times higher and show Raman intensity two orders of magnitude higher than those with no enrichment. In addition, even distribution of gold nanoparticles results in uniform Raman intensity, providing high signal reproducibility. Moreover, as the matrix of the microgel serves as a molecular filter, large adhesive proteins are rejected, which enables the direct detection of small molecules dissolved in the protein solution. It is believed that this advanced SERS platform is useful for in situ detection of toxic molecules in complex mixtures such as biological fluids, foods, and cosmetics.     

磁性羧甲基化壳聚糖纳米粒子的制备与表征

以化学共沉淀法制备了Fe3O4纳米粒子,壳聚糖经羧甲基化改性后接枝在Fe3O4颗粒表面,得到了磁性羧甲基化壳聚糖(Fe3O4/CMC)纳米粒子.利用透射电镜(TEM)、X射线衍射(XRD)、傅立叶红外光谱(FT-IR)及磁性测试对产物进行了表征.TEM表明Fe3O4纳米粒子被CMC包覆,粒径约10 nm;XRD分析表明复合纳米粒子中磁性物质为Fe3O4;FT-IR表明壳聚糖发生羧甲基反应以及在Fe3O4表面的接枝反应.Fe3O4/CMC纳米粒子具有超顺磁性,比饱和磁化强度25.73 emu/g,有良好的磁稳定性.     

生物质基碳包覆纳米磁性颗粒的研究进展

碳包覆纳米磁性颗粒(CEMNPs)是一种具有核/壳结构的新型纳米复合材料,独特的理化性质使其在众多技术领域显示出巨大的应用潜力。随着全球化石能源的日渐枯竭,利用廉价、易获取、环境友好的生物质原料作为替代碳源已成为近年来CEMNPs材料的研究热点。综述了生物质基CEMNPs的制备方法、反应机理以及在电化学、催化、吸附等领域中的应用,最后展望了其发展方向和趋势。     

单分散Fe3O4纳米粒子的制备与改性的研究进展

Fe3 O4纳米粒子作为纳米材料的一种,由于其独特的光、电、磁、热性能而备受关注.综述了近几年Fe3 O4纳米粒子的制备方法,如共沉淀法、热分解法、微乳液法、水热法、氧化沉淀法、超声辅助法、溶胶-凝胶法等,同时论述了目前较受关注、研究较多的Fe3O4纳米粒子的表面修饰,以及水、油基Fe3O4纳米粒子的相转移,并展望了其进一步的研究.     

碳纳米管/磁性纳米粒子复合技术的研究进展

碳纳米管作为一种新型准一维功能材料已成为物理、化学和材料科学等领域的研究热点.由于缺乏微观上的加工处理方法,碳纳米管的应用受到一定程度的限制.磁性纳米材料由于其特殊的物理化学性质在存储器、传感器和环境保护等方面得到了广泛的应用.将磁性纳米粒子与碳纳米管复合不但可以使碳纳米管功能化改性,而且还可通过复合纳米管对磁场的响应对其进行加工处理.综述了碳纳米管与磁性粒子复合的制备技术,并展望了磁性复合碳纳米管的应用及其前景.     

Magnetic Targeting of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Internalized Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Cell therapies offer exciting new opportunities for effectively treating many human diseases. However, delivery of therapeutic cells by intravenous injection, while convenient, relies on the relatively inefficient process of homing of cells to sites of injury. To address this limitation, a novel strategy has been developed to load cells with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs), and to attract them to specific sites within the body by applying an external magnetic field. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), which may have a significant potential for regenerative cell therapies due to their ease of isolation from autologous tissues, and their ability to differentiate into various lineages and modulate their paracrine activity in response to the microenvironment. The efficient loading of hMSCs with polyethylene glycol‐coated SPIOs is achieved, and it is found that SPIOs are localized primarily in secondary lysosomes of hMSCs and are not toxic to the cells. Further, the key stem cell characteristics, including the immunophenotype of hMSCs and their ability to differentiate, are not altered by SPIO loading. Through both experimentation and mathematical modeling, it is shown that, under applied magnetic field gradients, SPIO‐containing cells can be localized both in vitro and in vivo. The results suggest that, by loading SPIOs into hMSCs and applying appropriate magnetic field gradients, it is possible to target hMSCs to particular vascular networks.     

Advection Flows‐Enhanced Magnetic Separation for High‐Throughput Bacteria Separation from Undiluted Whole Blood

A major challenge to scale up a microfluidic magnetic separator for extracorporeal blood cleansing applications is to overcome low magnetic drag velocity caused by viscous blood components interfering with magnetophoresis. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop an effective method to position magnetic particles to the area of augmented magnetic flux density gradients while retaining clinically applicable throughput. Here, a magnetophoretic cell separation device, integrated with slanted ridge‐arrays in a microfluidic channel, is reported. The slanted ridges patterned in the microfluidic channels generate spiral flows along the microfluidic channel. The cells bound with magnetic particles follow trajectories of the spiral streamlines and are repeatedly transferred in a transverse direction toward the area adjacent to a ferromagnetic nickel structure, where they are exposed to a highly augmented magnetic force of 7.68 µN that is much greater than the force (0.35 pN) at the side of the channel furthest from the nickel structure. With this approach, 91.68% ± 2.18% of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bound with magnetic nanoparticles are successfully separated from undiluted whole blood at a flow rate of 0.6 mL h^?1 in a single microfluidic channel, whereas only 23.98% ± 6.59% of E. coli are depleted in the conventional microfluidic device.     

DNA- and Field-Mediated Assembly of Magnetic Nanoparticles into High-Aspect Ratio Crystals

Under an applied magnetic field, superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with complementary DNA strands assemble into crystalline, pseudo-1D elongated superlattice structures. The assembly process is driven through a combination of DNA hybridization and particle dipolar coupling, a property dependent on particle composition, size, and interparticle distance. The DNA controls interparticle distance and crystal symmetry, while the magnetic field leads to anisotropic crystal growth. Increasing the dipole interaction between particles by increasing particle size or external field strength leads to a preference for a particular crystal morphology (e.g., rhombic dodecahedra, stacked clusters, and smooth rods). Molecular dynamics simulations show that an understanding of both DNA hybridization energetic and magnetic interactions is required to predict the resulting crystal morphology. Taken together, the data show that applied magnetic fields with magnetic nanoparticles can be deliberately used to access nanostructures beyond what is possible with DNA hybridization alone.     

Structuralization of Magnetic Nanoparticles Induced by Laser Heating in Magnetic Fluids

The structuralization of magnetic particles in magnetic fluids due to the thermodiffusion induced by laser light illumination was experimentally observed in two types of magnetic fluids: one based on a mineral oil with magnetite particles covered by a monolayer of oleic acid as a surfactant and the other a kerosene-based magnetic fluid sterically stabilized by a double layer consisting of oleic acid and dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid (DBS). Forced Rayleigh scattering (FRS) showed different behaviors of magnetic particle structuralization in the observed magnetic fluids. While for the case of mineral oil-based magnetic fluids, there was observed a positive thermodiffusion (S > 0), an indication of negative thermodiffusion (S < 0) was observed in magnetic fluids based on kerosene. This was also confirmed by the time-dependent decay of a grating of magnetic particles. Numerical simulation of aggregation for the case of negative thermodiffusion was confirmed by the observed aggregation after laser illumination in kerosene-based magnetic fluids and enabled an estimated value of the negative Soret constant in the magnetic fluid studied (S ≈ −10⁻² K ⁻¹).