Thermodynamic principles of emerging cryopreservation technologies

TL;DR

This paper presents a thermodynamic framework for understanding and designing modern cryopreservation technologies, integrating interdisciplinary principles to compare various techniques based on phase change, kinetics, and transport.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive thermodynamic approach to analyze and compare emerging cryopreservation methods across multiple disciplines.

Findings

Provides a unified thermodynamic toolkit for cryopreservation techniques

Analyzes phase change management in cryopreservation methods

Facilitates interdisciplinary comparison of cryopreservation technologies

Abstract

Modern cryopreservation exists at the convergence of diverse disciplines--materials science, physical chemistry, mechanical engineering, biological engineering, etc.--and emerging technologies often draw from many of these disciplines simultaneously. Thermodynamics, as one of the foundational theories underlying both physical and biological science, provides a framework through which to understand these interdisciplinary technologies, yet the full kit of requisite thermodynamic tools is not housed within any one discipline. This Chapter aims to articulate a foundational thermodynamic approach to the description, interrogation, and design of modern cryopreservation technologies, and to review the state of the art in emerging cryopreservation technologies through the lens of this approach. We focus in particular on the management of phase change across equilibrium-driven techniques (e.g., liquidus tracking, partial freezing, isochoric freezing), kinetics-driven techniques (e.g. supercooling, ice seeding), and transport-driven techniques (e.g. directional freezing, droplet approaches), and we hope to equip the reader with a self-consistent theoretical toolkit that enables meaningful comparison of these techniques from a thermodynamic perspective.