Ferrofluid based heart pump (screen-capture via suprocktech.com)
Imagine, someone's life may be saved by swapping in a "liquid heart." Science fiction to reality in a year?
An engineering team, led by Christopher Suprock, from Suprock Technologies has designed an artificial heart that has no moving parts that could change the way future implants function. The design utilizes an electromagnet base that uses ferrofluid encased in a flexible membrane to simulate a heartbeat. Once the magnet receives power it attracts the ferrofluid which then acts like a pump (or diaphragm) through switching on the electrical current at certain frequencies.
The fluid is actually the key in making the pump work, as it’s composed of nano-ferromagnetic particles that are suspended in a liquid usually made of water or organic solvent. When exposed to a magnet, the fluid becomes magnetized and forms a clump of particles that attract each other. When the magnetic field is turned off the particles dissipate and are no longer magnetized. Obviously the pump couldn’t be used as an implant as it stands, but the team hopes to implement the device inside of an artificial heart chamber to act as the hearts power plant at moving blood through the system.
The team is also working on a way to provide power to the pump wirelessly, which would eliminate the need for a power cables like the current generation of artificial hearts use. There are actually two versions of fluid pumps the team has designed with the second version using two chambers and valves which minimizes obstacles encountered with fluid flow, which decreases the risk of ‘shear’ that can damage red and white blood cells, as well as muscle tissue. Christopher hopes to have both prototypes completed in six months and then the FDA approval process within a year which is a pretty lofty goal. Still his design is simple but no less ingenious and could actually indeed change the way artificial hearts function.
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