Magnetic particles: From preparation to lab-on-a-chip, biosensors, microsystems and microfluidics applications

Magnetic particles are largely used in various applications and particularly in in-vitro biomedical diagnostic and bionanotechnology. In fact, they have been employed for extraction of various biomolecules even from crude samples and as solid support in numerous samples' preparation for in-vitro diagnosis. Nowadays, they are also successfully being exploited as a carrier of biomolecules in microsystems, microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip and for detection in specific biosensors. Before any use or any preparation of magnetic hybrid particles, various factors should be considered in order to perfectly target the suitable applications. For instance, in case of nucleic acid, the particles shouldn't induce any inhibition of biological amplification techniques. For microfluidic, these particles should be colloidal stable in order to avoid any jump in the microfluidic canals. Regarding biosensor, these particles need to be chemically well designed generally to enhance specific detection or specific signal. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.