Modeling of oxygen uptake in perfluorocarbon emulsions. Some comparisons with uptake by blood.

The use of perfluorocarbons emulsified in water as blood substitutes (artificial blood), is well known. Although considerable research has been devoted to the study of stability, toxicity, and gas solubility properties of these emulsions, there is no quantitative guide to the oxygen transport behavior in such emulsions, especially with reference to this transport process in actual blood. This paper describes a mathematical model from which the oxygen flux into a straight, cylindrical tube carrying a perfluorocarbon emulsion may be computed. The solutions to the proposed model can be adapted to that for a capillary or for a single tube in a blood oxygenator. The rates of oxygen transfer, so obtained, have been compared with analogous transfer rates that can be achieved in natural blood flowing under identical conditions. Therefore, the minimal solubilization capacity for oxygen required of a perfluorocarbon emulsion can be estimated on a quantitative basis. The modeling approach used in this study is based on the well tested theory of mass transfer in microheterogeneous media reported in the chemical engineering literature.