On the Feasibility of Using Magnetic Nanoparticles and Rotating Magnetic Fields for Activation and Control of Nanomachines

The paper presents the results of a numerical analysis aimed at assessing the feasibility of the use of magnetic nanoparticles as nano-motors for building nanomachines driven by means of rotating magnetic fields. The analysis is relative to the simple case where the nanomachine is the nanoparticle itself, free to rotate, without sliding, on a substrate, and aims at determining whether the application of a rotating magnetic field is able to force a desired motion to the nanoparticle, countering the effects of the thermal agitation due to the molecules of liquid wherein the nano-system is embedded. The analysis has been carried out by implementing in a numerical code the theoretical models describing the dynamics of the nano-system. The numerical results show the actual feasibility of the analyzed prototype of nanomachine, hence, they can be considered a concrete basis for the future designing and development of magnetically driven nanomachines.