The applications of photophoresis expand into the various divisions of science, thus physics, chemistry as well as in biology. Photophoresis is applied in particle trapping  and levitation, in the field flow fractionation of particles, in the determination of thermal conductivity and temperature of microscopic grains and also in the  transport of soot  particles in the atmosphere. The use of light in the separation of particles aerosols based on their optical properties, makes possible the separation of  organic and inorganic particles of the same aerodynamic size.
Recently, photophoresis has been suggested as a chiral sorting mechanism for single walled carbon nanotubes. The proposed method would utilise differences in the absorption spectra of semiconducting carbon nanotubes arising from optically excited transitions in electronic structure. If developed the technique would be orders of magnitudes faster than currently established ultracentrifugation techniques.
In 2021 Azadi, Popov et al. report "light-driven levitation of macroscopic polymer films with nanostructured surface as candidates for long-duration near-space flight" Using a light intensity comparable to sunlight, they levitated centimeter-scale disks made of commercial 0.5-micron-thick mylar film coated with carbon nanotubes on one side. Experiments by Schafer, Kim, Vlassak and Keith suggest that photophoretic forces could levitate thin 10 centimetre-scale structures in Earth′s stratosphere indefinitely for the purpose of  atmospheric science, especially monitoring high-altitude weather. They describe in 2022 a preliminary design fabricated with available methods of a 10 cm diameter device combining a levitating structure of two membranes 2 μm apart in a stiff support structure tested to have sufficient strength to withstand transport, deployment, and flight at 25 km altitude. Payload capacity is 300 mg and could support bidirectional radio communication at over 10 Mb/s and some navigational control. By upscaling the structure  it might carry payloads of a few grams. They suggest uses for telecommunications, and deployment on Mars.