1. Selective Actuation and Tomographic Imaging of Swarming Magnetite Nanoparticles
- Author
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Damien Faivre, Felix Bachmann, Thorsten M. Buzug, Andrejs Cebers, Anna C. Bakenecker, Klaas Bente, Anselm von Gladiss, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Universität zu Lübeck = University of Lübeck [Lübeck], University of Latvia (LU), Institut de Biosciences et Biotechnologies d'Aix-Marseille (ex-IBEB) (BIAM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the Max Planck Society and from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF) for funding this project under grant no. 13GW0230B (FMT)., and Publica
- Subjects
Scanner ,Materials science ,Tomographic reconstruction ,magnetic steering ,nanobots ,Nanotechnology ,Active matter ,[SPI]Engineering Sciences [physics] ,Magnetic particle imaging ,collective effects ,magnetic particle imaging ,Medical imaging ,microrobotics ,Particle ,Magnetic nanoparticles ,General Materials Science ,Nanorobotics ,MPI ,active matter ,nanorobotics - Abstract
International audience; Micro- and nanomotors have seen substantial progress in recent years for biomedical applications. However, three grand challenges remain: (i) high velocities to overcome the blood flow, (ii) spatially selective control to enable complex navigation, and (iii) integration of a medical, tomographic real-time imaging method to acquire feedback information. Here, we report the combination of active magnetic matter and a medical imaging technique, namely magnetic particle imaging (MPI), which addresses these needs. We synthesize ∼200 nm magnetic nanoparticles and observe a macroscopic, collective effect in a homogeneous magnetic field with a rotating field vector. The nanoparticles form a millimeter-sized cloud and reach speeds of 8 mm s–1. This cloud is imaged and selectively steered with an MPI scanner. Our experimental results are supported by a model that highlights the role of the Mason number, the particle’s volume fraction, and the height of the cloud. The successful introduction of a fast swarm of microscopic units and the spatial selectivity of the technique suggest an effective approach to translate the use of micro- and nanobots into a clinical application.
- Published
- 2021