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Analytical chemistry

Reactions assayed by magnets

Nature volume 457, page 805 (2009)Cite this article

Does it float or sink? And to what extent? The answers to these questions can be used to follow the course of chemical reactions on solid supports, and are obtained simply by using two magnets, a salt solution and a ruler.

A generation of children is familiar with the concept of levitation from the adventures of Harry Potter, and could be forgiven for thinking it unremarkable. Scientists will know of real-world examples — reports of levitating water-droplets1, cells2 and even frogs3 — but most of them probably think of it as nothing more than a curiosity. It's unlikely that anyone imagined that levitation could be used as a routine analytical tool. But in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Mirica et al.4 show that magnetic levitation is a simple, viable way to follow the course of chemical reactions that occur on solid, diamagnetic supports, such as those routinely used by chemists to prepare peptides, nucleic acids and other organic molecules. (Diamagnetic materials are those that create a weak magnetic field in opposition to an external magnetic field.)

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Figure 1: Sink or levitate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. David E. Bergbreiter is in the Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, PO Box 30012, College Station, Texas 77843-3012, USA. bergbreiter@tamu.edu,

    David E. Bergbreiter

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  1. David E. Bergbreiter
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Bergbreiter, D. Reactions assayed by magnets. Nature 457, 805 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457805a

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