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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Quantification of Cellular Densities and Antigenic Properties using Magnetic Levitation
Published on: May 17, 2021
Electrorotation and levitation of cells and colloidal particles
K R Foster1, F A Sauer, H P Schwan
1Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6392 USA.
Abstract:
We review dielectrophoretic forces on cells and colloidal particles, emphasizing their use for manipulating and characterizing the electrical properties of suspended particles. Compared with dielectric spectroscopy, these methods offer a measure of independence from electrode artifacts and mixture theory. On the assumption that the particles can be modeled as uniform dielectric objects with effective dielectric properties, a simple theory can be developed for the frequency variation in the field-induced forces. For particles exhibiting counterion polarization, dielectrophoretic forces differ considerably from predictions of this theory at low frequencies, apparently because of double layer phenomena.
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