25 Magnetism

This report begins with a celebration of the development of MRI, the application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to providing spatial images of proton environments in biological systems, and how future developments will create new technologies for the study of magnetism as carried out by chemists and materials scientists. Some highlights of the development of magnetism for clusters, small particles and solids will then be presented. Particular attention has been given to the use of magnetic nanoparticles in magnetic separation—a technique better known to the biomedical discipline than chemistry, but one that has many chemical applications, such as sensors, and to which chemistry can make important contributions through functionalising the surfaces of the particles and stabilisation of colloidal suspensions.