Magnetic Technologies and Green Solvents in Extraction and Separation of Bioactive Molecules Together with Biochemical Objects: Current Opportunities and Challenges

Currently, magnetic technology and green solvents are widely used in chemical engineering, environmental engineering and other fields as they are environmentally friendly, easy to operate and highly efficient. Moreover, a magnetic field has positive effect on many physicochemical processes. However, related new methods, materials, strategies and applications in separation science still need to be developed. In this review, a series of meaningful explorations of magnetic technologies for the separation of natural products and biologic objects, including magnetic ionic liquids and other magnetic solvents and fluids, magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic fields, and the development of magnetic separators were reviewed. Furthermore, the difficulties in the application and development of magnetic separation technology were discussed on the basis of comparison and data analysis, especially for the selection of magnetic materials and magnetic field sources. Finally, the progress in the development of magnetic separators was also elaborated for researchers, mainly including that of the new high-efficiency magnetic separator through multi-technology integration and the optimization of traditional magnetic separators, which help current techniques break through their bottleneck as a powerful driving force.