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Magma (New York, N.Y.) Jul 2023The paper describes the evolution of low-field MRI from the very early pioneering days in the late 70 s until today. It is not meant to give a comprehensive historical... (Review)
Review
The paper describes the evolution of low-field MRI from the very early pioneering days in the late 70 s until today. It is not meant to give a comprehensive historical account of the development of MRI, but rather to highlight the different research environments then and now. In the early 90 s, when low-field systems below 1.5 T essentially vanished, there were just no reasonable means available to make up for the factor of roughly three in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) between 0.5 and 1.5 T. This has drastically changed. Improvements in hardware-closed Helium-free magnets, RF receiver systems and especially much faster gradients, much more flexible sampling schemes including parallel imaging and compressed sensing and especially the use of AI at all stages of the imaging process have made low-field MRI a clinically viable supplement to conventional MRI. Ultralow-field MRI with magnets around 0.05 T are also back and constitute a bold and courageous endeavor to bring MRI to communities, which have neither the means nor the infrastructure to sustain a current standard of care MRI.
Topics: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Signal-To-Noise Ratio
PubMed: 37289275
DOI: 10.1007/s10334-023-01104-z -
ACS Omega Jun 2023Core-shell magnetic air-stable nanoparticles have attracted increasing interest in recent years. Attaining a satisfactory distribution of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs)...
Core-shell magnetic air-stable nanoparticles have attracted increasing interest in recent years. Attaining a satisfactory distribution of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in polymeric matrices is difficult due to magnetically induced aggregation, and supporting the MNPs on a nonmagnetic core-shell is a well-established strategy. In order to obtain magnetically active polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites by melt mixing, the thermal reduction of graphene oxides (TrGO) at two different temperatures (600 and 1000 °C) was carried out, and, subsequently, metallic nanoparticles (Co or Ni) were dispersed on them. The XRD patterns of the nanoparticles show the characteristic peaks of the graphene, Co, and Ni nanoparticles, where the estimated sizes of Ni and Co were 3.59 and 4.25 nm, respectively. The Raman spectroscopy presents typical D and G bands of graphene materials as well as the corresponding peaks of Ni and Co nanoparticles. Elemental and surface area studies show that the carbon content and surface area increase with thermal reduction, as expected, following a reduction in the surface area by the support of MNPs. Atomic absorption spectroscopy demonstrates about 9-12 wt % metallic nanoparticles supported on the TrGO surface, showing that the reduction of GO at two different temperatures has no significant effect on the support of metallic nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy shows that the addition of a filler does not alter the chemical structure of the polymer. Scanning electron microscopy of the fracture interface of the samples demonstrates consistent dispersion of the filler in the polymer. The TGA analysis shows that, with the incorporation of the filler, the initial () and maximum () degradation temperatures of the PP nanocomposites increase up to 34 and 19 °C, respectively. The DSC results present an improvement in the crystallization temperature and percent crystallinity. The filler addition slightly enhances the elastic modulus of the nanocomposites. The results of the water contact angle confirm that the prepared nanocomposites are hydrophilic. Importantly, the diamagnetic matrix is transformed into a ferromagnetic one with the addition of the magnetic filler.
PubMed: 37360436
DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c01917 -
Precision Chemistry Jul 2023The wide accessibility to nanostructures with high uniformity and controllable sizes and morphologies provides great opportunities for creating complex superstructures... (Review)
Review
The wide accessibility to nanostructures with high uniformity and controllable sizes and morphologies provides great opportunities for creating complex superstructures with unique functionalities. Employing anisotropic nanostructures as the building blocks significantly enriches the superstructural phases, while their orientational control for obtaining long-range orders has remained a significant challenge. One solution is to introduce magnetic components into the anisotropic nanostructures to enable precise control of their orientations and positions in the superstructures by manipulating magnetic interactions. Recognizing the importance of magnetic anisotropy in colloidal assembly, we provide here an overview of magnetic field-guided self-assembly of magnetic nanoparticles with typical anisotropic shapes, including rods, cubes, plates, and peanuts. The Review starts with discussing the magnetic energy of nanoparticles, appreciating the vital roles of magneto-crystalline and shape anisotropies in determining the easy magnetization direction of the anisotropic nanostructures. It then introduces superstructures assembled from various magnetic building blocks and summarizes their unique properties and intriguing applications. It concludes with a discussion of remaining challenges and an outlook of future research opportunities that the magnetic assembly strategy may offer for colloidal assembly.
PubMed: 37529717
DOI: 10.1021/prechem.3c00012 -
Chemical Reviews May 2024Since the last century, we have witnessed the development of molecular magnetism which deals with magnetic materials based on molecular species, i.e., organic radicals... (Review)
Review
Since the last century, we have witnessed the development of molecular magnetism which deals with magnetic materials based on molecular species, i.e., organic radicals and metal complexes. Among them, the broadest attention was devoted to molecule-based ferro-/ferrimagnets, spin transition materials, including those exploring electron transfer, molecular nanomagnets, such as single-molecule magnets (SMMs), molecular qubits, and stimuli-responsive magnetic materials. Their physical properties open the application horizons in sensors, data storage, spintronics, and quantum computation. It was found that various optical phenomena, such as thermochromism, photoswitching of magnetic and optical characteristics, luminescence, nonlinear optical and chiroptical effects, as well as optical responsivity to external stimuli, can be implemented into molecule-based magnetic materials. Moreover, the fruitful interactions of these optical effects with magnetism in molecule-based materials can provide new physical cross-effects and multifunctionality, enriching the applications in optical, electronic, and magnetic devices. This Review aims to show the scope of optical phenomena generated in molecule-based magnetic materials, including the recent advances in such areas as high-temperature photomagnetism, optical thermometry utilizing SMMs, optical addressability of molecular qubits, magneto-chiral dichroism, and opto-magneto-electric multifunctionality. These findings are discussed in the context of the types of optical phenomena accessible for various classes of molecule-based magnetic materials.
PubMed: 38687182
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00840 -
Proceedings of the Japan Academy.... 2024Magnetron production and use far exceed that of other microwave tubes due to their high operational efficiency, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in production.... (Review)
Review
Magnetron production and use far exceed that of other microwave tubes due to their high operational efficiency, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in production. The magnetron was named by A. W. Hull; however, the device invented by Hull differs from the magnetron utilized as a microwave tube. The magnetron widely used today is based on the split-anode magnetron invented by K. Okabe. This overview introduces two papers published by Okabe in the Proceedings of the Imperial Academy and discusses the events that led to the discovery of the split-anode magnetron. In addition, the operation mechanisms of magnetrons are explained.
Topics: Electrodes; Inventions; History, 20th Century; Microwaves; Magnetics
PubMed: 38735752
DOI: 10.2183/pjab.100.018 -
Journal of Magnetic Resonance (San... Dec 2023We demonstrate the construction of 7 Tesla and 12 Tesla all high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) magnets, small enough to fit on your wrist. The size of the magnet...
We demonstrate the construction of 7 Tesla and 12 Tesla all high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) magnets, small enough to fit on your wrist. The size of the magnet reduces the cost of fabrication, decreases the fringe field to permit facile siting of magnets, and decreases the stored energy of high field magnets. These small HTS-based magnets are being developed for gyrotron microwave sources for use in high-field nuclear magnetic resonance applications. The 7 Tesla and 12 Tesla magnets employ a no-insulation winding technique and are cooled to 4.2 Kelvin in a liquid helium cryostat. The 7 Tesla magnet is a single pancake coil, made of only 9.4 m of HTS tape, with an inner diameter of 8 mm and an outer diameter of 24 mm. This magnet was charged up to 1168 Amperes, generating a field of 7.3 Tesla. The 12 Tesla magnet is comprised of two pancake coils (inner diameter of 10 mm and outer diameter of 27 mm) connected in series. This magnet reached its maximum field at a current of 850 Amperes.
PubMed: 37976810
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2023.107588 -
Nature Communications Nov 2023Itinerant kagome lattice magnets exhibit many novel correlated and topological quantum electronic states with broken time-reversal symmetry. Superconductivity, however,...
Itinerant kagome lattice magnets exhibit many novel correlated and topological quantum electronic states with broken time-reversal symmetry. Superconductivity, however, has not been observed in this class of materials, presenting a roadblock in a promising path toward topological superconductivity. Here, we report that novel superconductivity can emerge at the interface of kagome Chern magnet TbMnSn and metal heterostructures when elemental metallic thin films are deposited on either the top (001) surface or the side surfaces. Superconductivity is also successfully induced and systematically studied by using various types of metallic tips on different TbMnSn surfaces in point-contact measurements. The anisotropy of the superconducting upper critical field suggests that the emergent superconductivity is quasi-two-dimensional. Remarkably, the interface superconductor couples to the magnetic order of the kagome metal and exhibits a hysteretic magnetoresistance in the superconducting states. Taking into account the spin-orbit coupling, the observed interface superconductivity can be a surprising and more realistic realization of the p-wave topological superconductors theoretically proposed for two-dimensional semiconductors proximity-coupled to s-wave superconductors and insulating ferromagnets. Our findings of robust superconductivity in topological-Chern-magnet/metal heterostructures offer a new direction for investigating spin-triplet pairing and topological superconductivity.
PubMed: 37919274
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42779-1 -
Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach,... Sep 2023Broad adoption of magnetic soft robotics is hampered by the sophisticated field paradigms for their manipulation and the complexities in controlling multiple devices....
Broad adoption of magnetic soft robotics is hampered by the sophisticated field paradigms for their manipulation and the complexities in controlling multiple devices. Furthermore, high-throughput fabrication of such devices across spatial scales remains challenging. Here, advances in fiber-based actuators and magnetic elastomer composites are leveraged to create 3D magnetic soft robots controlled by unidirectional fields. Thermally drawn elastomeric fibers are instrumented with a magnetic composite synthesized to withstand strains exceeding 600%. A combination of strain and magnetization engineering in these fibers enables programming of 3D robots capable of crawling or walking in magnetic fields orthogonal to the plane of motion. Magnetic robots act as cargo carriers, and multiple robots can be controlled simultaneously and in opposing directions using a single stationary electromagnet. The scalable approach to fabrication and control of magnetic soft robots invites their future applications in constrained environments where complex fields cannot be readily deployed.
PubMed: 37269476
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202301916 -
Magma (New York, N.Y.) Jul 2023To review the major hardware components of low-field point-of-care MRI systems which affect the overall sensitivity. (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVE
To review the major hardware components of low-field point-of-care MRI systems which affect the overall sensitivity.
METHODS
Designs for the following components are reviewed and analyzed: magnet, RF coils, transmit/receive switches, preamplifiers, data acquisition system, and methods for grounding and mitigating electromagnetic interference.
RESULTS
High homogeneity magnets can be produced in a variety of different designs including C- and H-shaped as well as Halbach arrays. Using Litz wire for RF coil designs enables unloaded Q values of ~ 400 to be reached, with body loss representing about 35% of the total system resistance. There are a number of different schemes to tackle issues arising from the low coil bandwidth with respect to the imaging bandwidth. Finally, the effects of good RF shielding, proper electrical grounding, and effective electromagnetic interference reduction can lead to substantial increases in image signal-to-noise ratio.
DISCUSSION
There are many different magnet and RF coil designs in the literature, and to enable meaningful comparisons and optimizations to be performed it would be very helpful to determine a standardized set of sensitivity measures, irrespective of design.
Topics: Point-of-Care Systems; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Radio Waves; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; Phantoms, Imaging; Equipment Design
PubMed: 37202656
DOI: 10.1007/s10334-023-01100-3