Curvilinear Magnetic Architectures for Biomedical Engineering

The field of autonomous motile micro/nanomotors that can propel in the liquid environment strongly benefits from the use of magnetic materials, winning in the long-time deterministic locomotion and controllability of such microscopic objects. This chapter reviews the applications of curved magnetic micro/nanostructures to be employed for biomedical and environmental applications. In this respect, after introducing the basic principle and examples of the self-propelled micro-objects, we further focus here on the locomotion of the magnetically decorated microscopic objects and the influence of their shape on the character and pattern of the motion. Namely, we consider the properties of magnetically capped spherical Janus particles, rod-like, tubular, and other asymmetric objects, e.g., microhelices, with magnetic functionalization. Finally, we describe the applications of such magnetic objects in environmental remediation, biosensing and drug delivery, etc.