Synthetic Wearable Kidney: The Creation of a Thin-Film Nano Fibrous Composite Membrane for Blood Filtration

Abstract

The Synthetic Wearable Kidney (SWK), a remarkable medical innovation of the last century, has preserved many lives afflicted with advanced renal failure. The configurations of SWK have undergone significant evolution throughout years of exploration. The future trajectory of SWK is focused on downsizing, enhanced biological compatibility, and providing metabolic activities. A hollow-fiber membrane with precisely regulated blood and dialyses flow emerged as the predominant design of the contemporary SWK. Despite their proven efficacy in extending patient longevity, contemporary blood purifying systems remain flawed. The existing blood purification therapy is deficient in enhancing the patient's well-being, managing problems, and restoring metabolic processes. This paper presents a straightforward approach for the lightweight construction of a SWK utilizing an innovative dialysis/adsorption dual-purpose Thin-film Nano-Fibrous Composite (TNC) Membrane for Blood Filtration (BF). TNC membrane comprises a Polyvinyl Alcohol (PA) water-based gel as the separating stage and a nano-fibrous (NF) membrane integrated with Carboxyl Functionalized Zirconium-based Metal-Organic Framework (CF-ZR-MOF), designed to decrease the quantity of creatinine during dialysis and provide effective BF. Results illustrate that the filtration capacity of both CF-ZR-MOF and PA-TNC escalates with increasing quantity, with CF-ZR-MOF NP exhibiting a markedly superior capacity (about 78 mg/g) in contrast to PA-TNC (around 43 mg/g) at elevated quantities. Consequently, incorporating a separation feature in the TNC dialysis substrate may promote the creation of a compact SWK.