The invention is directed to a method and a system for producing a ferrofluid comprising providing a stock solution with Fe(II) and Fe(III); mixing the stock solution with a base to form magnetic nanoparticles and a spent solution, said method further comprising a separation step of separating the nanoparticles from the spent solution by applying a magnet to immobilize the nanoparticles and remove at least part of the spent solution as supernatant from the immobilized nanoparticles. In another aspect, the invention is directed to the resulting ferrofluid.

The methods of the invention employ targeted magnetic particles, preferably targeted nanomagnetic particles, and targeted buoyant particles such as buoyant microparticles and microbubbles. Among the benefits of the invention is the ability to combine targeted magnetic particles with differentially targeted buoyant particles to achieve separation of two or more specifically cell targeted populations during the same work flow.

A method of operating a magnetic selector is provided. The magnetic selector includes a housing including a floor having a floor surface, a magnet carrier disposed on an opposite side of the floor from the floor surface and having at least one magnet disposed thereon, the magnet carrier being moveable relative to the floor between a first state wherein the magnet carrier is adjacent the floor and a second state wherein the magnet carrier is spaced from the floor. The method includes disposing a container on the floor surface, moving the magnet carrier to the first state to apply a magnetic field to a fluid in the container, moving the magnet carrier to the second state from the first state to disengage the magnetic field from the container, and removing the container.

A magnetic bead separation method includes: storing, in a container, a mixed liquid containing a magnetic bead and a liquid containing target molecules, and adsorbing the target molecules on the magnetic bead, the magnetic bead containing a Fe-based metal soft magnetic particle and a coating film with which the Fe-based metal soft magnetic particle is coated, and having a saturation magnetization of 50 emu/g or more and 250 emu/g or less; applying an external magnetic field to the container and magnetically attracting at least a part of the magnetic bead by the external magnetic field; and applying an acceleration to the container while the magnetic bead is magnetically attracted by the external magnetic field and desorbing the liquid adhering to the magnetic bead.

There is provided a means capable of recovering a valuable material such as cobalt and nickel, with a low grade of a metal derived from a negative electrode current collector, a low grade of fluorine, and a low grade of a material derived from a negative electrode active material. A method for recovering a valuable material from a lithium ion secondary battery, is characterized in that it includes: a heat treatment step of performing heat treatment on a lithium ion secondary battery; a crushing step of crushing a heat-treated object obtained through the heat treatment step; a classification step of classifying a crushed object obtained through the crushing step into a coarse particle product and a fine particle product; and a wet magnetic separation step of performing wet magnetic separation on the fine particle product obtained through the classification step.

Methods are provided for separating magnetically responsive beads from a droplet in a droplet actuator. Droplet operations electrodes and a magnet are arranged in a droplet actuator to manipulate a bead-containing droplet and position it relative to a magnetic field region that attracts the magnetically responsive beads. The droplet operations electrodes are operated to control the droplet shape and transport it away from the magnetic field region to form a concentration of beads in the droplet. The continued transport of the droplet away from the magnetic field causes the concentration of beads to break away from the droplet to yield a small, concentrated bead-containing droplet immobilized by the magnet.

An automated biologic sample extracting system from a set of biological samples with a small footprint with minimal movement of the set of consumables, thereby reducing potential contamination during the extraction process. The extracting system comprising a set of reaction tubes, a storage unit to store a set of consumables; a sample preparation unit; a sample extraction unit; a waste unit; a plurality of robots to move tubes, samples, and boxes, and a programmable control system programmed to process samples in a serial pattern in which a series of samples follow one another to be processed in a time sequence and in succession so that it keeps a fixed processing turnaround time of each sample no matter when a sample would start the process.

A magnetic matrix for magnetic separation of particles in a material feed includes a plurality of grooved plates having first and second sides that both have an alternating series of teeth and grooves therealong, each grooved plate having an offset alignment in which teeth and grooves on a first side of a plate are laterally offset from teeth and grooves on a second side of the same plate. Also provided are methods of using magnetic matrices to separate magnetic ores, with the methods characterized by a negative correlation in which magnetic matrices constructed with grooved plates having larger pitches are used for the separation of ultrafine particles.

A magnetic-field generator (10) is provided to be used in construction of a cell sheet (12), and include s a magnetic circuit assembly (24) configured to generate a magnetic field for the construction of the cell sheet (12) using magnetic force caused by the magnetic field wherein the magnetic force is substantially transverse to a plane defined by the cell sheet (12), and a power control system (44) configured to generate and control electric power to magnetically charge the magnetic circuit assembly (24) using the electric power.

Embodiments of the system and/or method can include and/or apply a magnetic device for facilitating a magnetic field for isolating the nucleic acid material from a sample, the magnetic device including a support component; and a set of magnetic pins attached to the support component and movable with at least three degrees of freedom when attached to the support component, where the set of magnetic pins provide adaptability to shapes of sample compartments of a sample container.