Inverse mass ratio batteries: An in situ energy source generated from motive proton delivery gradients

Abstract

Nanometer level surgical work requires novel energy sources to extend the therapeutic potential of medical devices. Inverse mass ratio batteries are an advance in energy production that deploy an “irrigant within water” designed from the scientific discipline of Engineered Irrigants. This report discusses the derivation of inverse mass ratio batteries from alternating current redox magnetohydrodynamics as developed to power the physiochemical scalpel; a tissue rescue energy-based device system for wound healing that enables precision resection, advantageous extracellular matrix modifications, and initiation of biosynthetic tissue assembly.

Introduction

The development of novel energy sources designed to power nanometer level surgical work constitutes a vibrant investigative area in medical therapeutics. One such energy source that has fostered significant therapeutic advances is the inverse mass ratio battery [1], [2], [3] used to accomplish various tissue rescue treatments, which include precision resection; microfluidic mixing, stirring, and pumping; facilitative colloidal crystal, hydro- and sol–gel self-assembly; electrolyzable interfacing agent modification; charged species injection and migration; electromagnetic induction coupling; electro-wetting, -formation, and -swelling; micelle and coascervate formation; pharmaceutical agent delivery; electromagnetic phoresis; extracellular matrix modification; and biosynthetic transcription initiation. These advances have been applied to tissue surface based medical conditions for wound healing because of well established endoscopic access procedures that utilize saline solutions comparable to that within which biologic tissue resides [2].

The inverse mass ratio battery is an energy source generated in situ during treatment by inducing charged specie separation in saline solutions through an energy conversion process patterned after common biologic electron transport chain mechanisms that form proton gradients. Using the water molecule as an energy transducer, the technique involves positioning localized alternating current circuits in saline solutions containing electroactive species to move electrons between device electrodes utilizing electron donor and acceptor carriers within the host fluid to liberate stored intermolecular bond energy [1], [2], [3]. This electron transport produces fuel cell like reversible redox reaction pairs associated with charged specie intermediaries formed above baseline solution dissociation rates upon which the attendant alternating current non-ionizing electromagnetic field quanta influence the reaction dynamics. These influences include charged fluid acceleration that create magnetohydrodynamic propulsive thrust currents. Although originally used to propel the originating source, by changing the observational reference frame, the thrust currents are adapted for medical therapeutics as irrigants. These “irrigants within water” are comprised of regional structure altered molecular water [3] exhibiting differential charged specie separation that results in a sequestered energy source contained within the irrigant that is useful for surgical work.

The energy conversion process from electron transport to charged specie separation within the attendant non-ionizing electromagnetic environment is governed by the charge-to-mass ratio (Q/m) profile of saline solution constituents whereby those species with the highest Q/m generally travel furthest in host media. The inverse mass ratio battery is a unique subset of Engineered Irrigants in that it is generated by a proton gradient formed in saline solutions, which predominantly contain charge equivalent monovalent anions and cations. For instance, sodium (or potassium) chloride solutions contain predominantly Cl⁻, OH⁻, Na⁺ (or K⁺), H⁺, and H₃O⁺ for which the charge magnitude of the Q/m ratio is eliminated during differential charge specie separation analyses of alternating current redox magnetohydrodynamic phenomena [3]. This elimination enables the design formulation of irrigant differential charge specie movement to be based upon mass only, a feature that led to these energy sources being designated as inverse mass ratio batteries.

The physiochemical scalpel [4] functions as an alternating current redox magnetohydrodynamic proton pump form of energy sequestration that maintains regional proton gradients within saline solutions ambient to biologic tissues (Figure 1, Figure 2). Because the intermolecular hydrogen bond stretching frequencies of water demonstrate a proton based femto- to pico-second oscillation period [5], electron movements associated with alternating current polarity changes are less rapid so that water protons in the irrigant experience direct current forces (10^12–15 Hz oscillation rate versus 10^5–6 Hz circuit frequencies) during device activation. Accordingly, irrigant batteries generated through motive proton delivery gradients can be reduced to a direct current energy storage model capable of direct current discharge during contact with a specific therapeutic target [2]. The purpose of this report is to present the derivation outline of inverse mass ratio batteries as designed for the physiochemical scalpel.