Abstract
A detection scheme for real-time Brownian relaxation of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is demonstrated by a mixing-frequency method in this paper. MNPs are driven into the saturation region by a low frequency sinusoidal magnetic field. A high frequency sinusoidal magnetic field is then applied to generate mixing-frequency signals that are highly specific to the magnetization of MNPs. These highly sensitive mixing-frequency signals from MNPs are picked up by a pair of balanced built-in detection coils. The phase delays of the mixing-frequency signals behind the applied field are derived, and are experimentally verified. Commercial iron oxide MNPs with the core diameter of 35 nm are used for the measurement of Brownian relaxation. The results are fitted well with Debye model. Then a real-time measurement of the binding process between protein G and its antibody is demonstrated using MNPs as labels. This study provides a volume-based magnetic sensing scheme for the detection of binding kinetics and interaction affinities between biomolecules in real time.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 213702 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue number | 21 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 23 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Authors thank the partial support from National Science Foundation Grant No. BME 0730825 and Institute of Engineering in Medicine at University of Minnesota. Parts of this work were carried out using the Characterization Facility which receives partial support from NSF through the NSF Minnesota MRSEC Program under Award No. DMR-0819885 and NNIN program.