Phase change materials for a blood transport container to support long-term storage and transportation of red blood cells in extreme conditions

Abstract

Blood transfusions are essential during emergency treatment for serious trauma or war wounds. Due to the lack of refrigerated transport conditions for blood products, the accessibility of red blood cells (RBCs) remains a challenge in areas with a low hospital density. In this study, we developed a blood transport container for RBCs. The internal temperature of the container was able to be maintained at 2–10 °C for a long period without a power source. The new blood transport container is composed of cooling tiles filled with composite phase change materials (PCMs) and is placed in a heat insulation box. The composite PCMs consist of n-tetradecane and n-tridecane, with styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene as the supporting material. The phase transition temperature of the composite PCMs was 3.97 ± 0.25 °C, which is close to the optimal preservation temperature of RBCs, and the latent heat was 177.25 ± 5.40 J·g−1. This new PCMs-based blood transport container maintained a low temperature of 2–10 °C with RBCs inside for approximately 45 h during sea transportation. More importantly, the distinguishing feature of the container is its ability to work in extreme environments. It was able to maintain the appropriate temperature for >16 h in an extremely low temperature (−41 °C), and for >17 h in an extremely high temperature (46 °C). And the container maintained the quality of the RBCs within an acceptable range under complex simulated transportation or air transportation with continuous vibration. These results suggest that the new PCMs-based blood transport container will be helpful in remote or special areas where emergency delivery of RBCs is required.