Field-Assisted Self-Assembly of Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical, MEMS and BioMEMS Applications

Publisher This chapter describes the behavior of the superparamagnetic nanoparticles, in the context of the transport and field-induced self-assembly of ferrofluids and magnetic microspheres. The current research on applications of ferrofluids and magnetic microspheres in biomedical, MEMS and microscale thermal engineering is also discussed. Magnetic nanoparticles in a suspension are amenable to a number of forces, such as Brownian and Stokes drag forces, van der Waals attraction potential, gravitational force and dipole–dipole interaction in an imposed magnetic field. Therefore, more involved multiscale models—for example, Lattice-Boltzmann method, have been deployed to analyze the transport of magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic microspheres. Experimental investigations of magnetic microspheres have been performed using direct imaging, fluorescence imaging, magnetic sensing—for example, using giant magneto resistive (GMR) sensors or superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensors.