Chapter 3 - Physical chemistry of dispersed nanostructures in blood

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823971-1.00003-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Whenever dispersed nanostructures are applied in blood, physicochemical phenomena play a major role for the function, the toxicity, and the long-term behavior of the system. These phenomena include the consequences of its large surface, its size distribution, the stability of the structure dispersion, surface properties, mechanical stability, Brownian mobility, diffusion of system constituents, gas exchange, and degradation phenomena. In the development of particle systems applied in hematology, the challenge starts with the creation of structures in a suitable size range. It continues with keeping these structures in a stable dispersion, which is a necessary condition for extended shelf lifetime. A central functional issue is the diffusion of constituents which are being released from or taken up by the applied particles. In the case of artificial oxygen carriers, a key process is presented by the gas exchange with a focus on oxygen and carbon dioxide, but also on carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, or nitrogen. Further, for an extended lifetime, the structures have to survive the conditions of mechanical shear and osmotic pressure inside blood vessels. In addition, one has to worry about significant changes of the size of the given nanostructures which could be affected by particle agglomeration, Ostwald ripening, or swelling. All these phenomena may affect the performance of nanostructures applied to blood and therefore deserve special attention.

References (0)

Cited by (0)

View full text