Week 26 Report

This week, the team met on Friday to continue working on the prototyping stage of the project. Upon the arrival of new solenoid electromagnets, Bert and Zane worked to find a new magnetic agitation solution. After connecting the electromagnets to their rated 12 V DC power source, the team learned that the magnets are not as strong as hoped. The magnets cannot attract the magnetic nanoparticles at any distance farther than about 1.5 cm. To combat this, Bert and Zane met with Mike to devise a new solution to this problem. The team is planning on using a very small syringe and a 3D printed connection that will allow for a highly concentrated MNP solution to be fed into the connection. Because of the very slow rates of infusion of the overall solution (from both MNP and infusatn syringe), the connection point will have a very small cross sectional area. The team expects this to both encourage more turbulent flow allowing better mixing and possible clump prevention. Quin continued to work on the syringe pump having to switch out the driver and the motor due to breakage from previous prototyping. Better parts expected to withstand our testing parameters are being used now.