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A Magnetic Levitation System for Range/Sensitivity-Tunable Measurement of Density
Summary
Researchers developed a magnetic levitation (MagLev) system capable of measuring the density of small objects across a tunable range of sensitivity. The system can identify materials by their density, which has applications for sorting and identifying microplastics by polymer type. A versatile density-measurement tool could streamline microplastic characterization in environmental samples.
Magnetic levitation (MagLev) is a promising density-based analytical technique with numerous applications. Several MagLev structures with different levels of sensitivity and range have been studied. However, these MagLev structures can seldom satisfy the different performance requirements simultaneously, such as high sensitivity, wide measurement range, and easy operation, which have prevented them from being widely used. In this work, a tunable MagLev system was developed. It is confirmed by numerical simulation and experiments that this system possesses a high resolution down to 10-7 g/cm3 or even higher compared to the existing systems. Meanwhile, the resolution and range of this tunable system can be adjusted to meet different requirements of measurement. More importantly, this system can be operated simply and conveniently. This bundle of characteristics demonstrates that the novel tunable MagLev system could be handily applied in various density-based analyses on demand, which would greatly expand the ability of MagLev technology.