Measurement of thermal conductivity of biomaterials and cryopreservation solutions

Based on the principle of “hot-wire”, a fine needle probe has been developed to determine the thermal conductivity of cryopreservation solutions and biomaterials. The fine needle probe is constructed by inserting twenty strands of fine copper wire (0.02 mm in diameter) into a stainless steel needle. To evaluate the fine needle technique, glycerol, water and several other chemicals were used as the standard specimen. Thermal conductivity values of these chemicals were measured at different temperatures. Values of measured thermal conductivity agreed well (<2% relative error) with TPRC published data