Rheology of biocompatible ferrofluids in blood

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Odenbach
• Subject Area: Fluid Mechanics
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250202568

The use of suspensions of magnetic particles in biomedical applications - especially in cancer therapy has attracted growing interest in the past decades. In this context basic investigations have shown, that especially the fluid mechanics aspects of an approach commonly called magnetic drug targeting, i.e. a magnetically controlled delivery towards a tumor zone, still require the clarification of numerous fundamental aspects. Of particular interest in this respect are changes of the viscous behavior of the respective suspensions in the presence of magnetic fields that are needed for the clarification of basic fluid mechanical questions. Preliminary experiments have shown that biocompatible ferrofluids show a significant increase in their viscosity accompanied by the appearance of changes in their flow behavior even in weak magnetic fields. This is forced by the fact that comparably large clusters of magnetic particles exist in such biocompatible ferrofluids exhibiting a strong magnetic moment, which gives rise to strong interparticle interaction. The preliminary investigations have moreover shown that the observed effects subsist even if the fluids are diluted with water or blood. Thus, it is the central objective of project to clarify the rheology of suspensions of magnetic particles in blood, i.e. the flow behavior of those mixtures present in medical applications in detail. It is foreseen to investigate the rheological behavior over a wide range of field strength, shear rate and fluid composition in rheological experiments using capillary rheology. The final goal of these investigations will be the establishment of a constitutive material law for the flow behavior of such suspensions in a magnetic field, which will allow simulations of biomedical applications.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants