Magnet Coating Testing

Here is a new (2021) white paper I found that describes some mechanical and cytotoxicity tests performed on multiple types of magnet coatings.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ra/d0ra07989h

I was not involved in the study. It seems like well organized and valid data. Performed in Italy at the Biorobotics Institute. Distributed under CC 3.0 license. It appears to be targeted at advancing prosthetics research, but it's very applicable for our use-case as well. They explore several coatings: raw Nickel, Au, TiN, Ti, Parylene, Silicone, HDPE

Comments

  • People seem to be at risk of magnet rejection after years of the implant being inside them I've been often reading because the coating bio-degrades over time and the magnet then ends up breaking down into the tissue layers and the bloodstream causing symptoms such as numbness at the implant site (common), the body may attempt to tunnel out the device like a splinter in order to remove it from itself. Most cases the body does a successful rejection, some cases the body can't reject it for whatever reason and instead the magnet puts toxins into the bloodstream which can cause a fever.

    The solution is dead simple, it's not even genius and just simply makes sense. Coat the magnet in epoxy before you place into your body. I have thought about designing epoxy coated implants then recently I found out I wasn't at all wrong when I found the below article.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30380643/

  • Very interesting. I'd just caution that there are many different formulations of epoxy and you need to verify that you're using a biosafe one that won't slough off or release toxic byproducts when subjected to the hostile environment of the body.

  • Lol. If only it was that simple.
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