Magnetic separation of micro-spheres from viscous biological fluids

A magnetically based detoxification system is being developed as a therapeutic tool for selective and rapid removal of biohazards, i.e. chemicals and radioactive substances, from human blood. One of the key components of this system is a portable magnetic separator capable of separating polymer-based magnetic nano/micro-spheres from arterial blood flow in an ex vivo unit. The magnetic separator consists of an array of alternating and parallel capillary tubing and magnetizable wires, which is exposed to an applied magnetic field created by two parallel permanent magnets such that the magnetic field is perpendicular to both the wires and the fluid flow. In this paper, the performance of this separator was evaluated via preliminary in vitro flow experiments using a separator unit consisting of single capillary glass tubing and two metal wires. Pure water, ethylene glycol-water solution (v:v=39:61 and v:v=49:51) and human whole blood were used as the fluids. The results showed that when the viscosity increased from 1.0 cp to 3.0 cp, the capture efficiency (CE) decreased from 90% to 56%. However, it is still feasible to obtain >90% CE in blood flow if the separator design is optimized to create higher magnetic gradients and magnetic fields in the separation area.