Ferromagnetic microdisks as carriers for biomedical applications

We report the fabrication process, magnetic behavior, as well as the surface modification of ferromagnetic microdisks suspended in aqueous solution. They posses unique properties such as high magnetization of saturation, zero remanence due to spin vortex formation, intrinsic spin resonance at low frequencies, and the capability of delivering various biomolecules at once. Furthermore, because of their anisotropic shape, our magnetic particles rotate under alternating magnetic fields of small amplitude. This can be used to promote the idea of advanced therapies, which include combined drug delivery and magnetomechanical cell destruction when targeting tumor cells. The approach enables us to fabricate suitable magnetic carriers with excellent size tolerances, and then release them from the wafer into solution, ready for surface modification and therapeutic use. The particles have a magnetic core and are covered with few nanometers of gold on each side to provide stability at ambient conditions as well as biocompatibility and selective adhesion functions. A successful attempt to bind thiolates, including SH-modified antibody, to the disk's surface was demonstrated. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3061685]