Modeling, Experimentation and Bioengineering Applications of Carbon Nanotube Focused and Intensified Ultrasound

Description

In recent years, the life sciences have become intensive research areas due to their closerelation to increasing human healthcare demands. The key branches of life sciences,bioengineering and biomedical engineering are developing at a very fast pace both in analyticalmodelling, computational simulations and experiments. As a result, biotechnologicalapplications are also evolving. Many types of biomedical therapeutic equipment and devicesbased on high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) are now available for biomedical treatments.One of the most common therapeutic treatments is histotripsy, which involves kidney-stonefragmentation and the destruction of cancerous tumors or cells. Capitalizing on the advent ofcarbon nanotube (CNT) technology and the many superior characteristics of CNTs, this projectproposes to devise a new class of CNT-enhanced focused ultrasound devices that significantlyoutclass the current technology for the generation of HIFU in terms of focal zone dimensionalprecision and focal zone energy concentration (acoustic pressure strength). Emphasis will beplaced on establishing the fundamentals, experimental verification and determining theapplications of CNT-PDMS (CNT-polydimethylsiloxane) composite optoacoustic lenses that areable to generate HIFU. The proposed project covers three main areas. It aims to construct ananalytical model and to obtain analytical solutions for a new class of HIFU optoacoustic lensesmade of CNT-PDMS composite and an elastomeric substrate. Optoacoustic lenses will then befabricated and their various thermal-mechanical properties, sensitivities and optical performancecharacterized. Finally, the optoacoustic lenses will be applied to bioengineering and biomedicalapplications by testing their acoustic cavitation capabilities in stone fragmentation and tumordestruction. In this project, tests will be conducted using artificial specimen only and neitherhuman research ethics nor biological safety will be involved. It is expected that the CNT-PDMSoptoacoustic lenses will generate an acoustic pressure that is several times higher and severaltimes more dimensionally precise than ultrasound generated by biomedical devices based oncontemporary technology with the same amount of energy input.?