Development of anisotropic ferromagnetic composites for low-frequency induction heating technology in medical applications

Modern medical applications such as varicose treatment, hyperthermia, or even endovenous thermal ablation require to bring heat flux locally through the human body. The challenge behind techniques resides in converting electrical power into and transfer it directly targeted area without contaminating damaging surrounding tissues. Low-frequency induction heating (LFIH) of catheters made out biocompatible magnetic composites is an elegant solution. By inserting catheter be treated by exciting LFIH, seems possible reach a temperature high enough properly heal damaged while preserving healthy ones. Although recent published results seem promising, optimized procedure still required achieve further improvements. Many directions lying on active material formulation have been largely explored past (variations particle content, nature, size, shape). In this work, we propose alternative solution, which involves processing ferromagnetic under constant homogeneous field, leading strong anisotropic behavior due particles alignment. Remarkably, experimental demonstrate that along alignment direction enhances LFIH effect more than 30%. Moreover, improvements can also noticed perpendicular direction, meaning structured distribution increase properties. Furthermore, resulting composite highly flexible, making easier integrated several devices (e.g. catheter, electromagnetic tracking system, so on).