Industrially-scaled pulsed laser deposition based coating techniques for the realization of hemocompatible surfaces for blood contact applications

Non-thrombogenicblood contacting surfaces and appropriate blood flow characteristics are essentialfor clinical application. State-of-the-art coatings are based on heparin andstruggle with the problem of bleeding. Thus, there is increasingdemand for developing new coating materials for improved human bodyacceptance. Materials deposited by vacuum coating techniques would be anexcellent alternative if the coating temperatures can be kept lowdue to the applied substrate materials of low temperature resistance(mostly polymers). Under these circumstances, adequate film structure and highadhesion can be reached by the Pulsed Laser Deposition atroom temperature (RT-PLD), which was developed to an industrial-scaled processat Laser Center Leoben. This process was applied to depositTi, TiN, TiCN and diamond-like carbon (DLC) on polyurethane, titaniumand silicon substrates to study the biological interactions to bloodcells and the kinetic mechanism of eukaryote cell attachment. Besideshigh biological acceptance, distinct differences for the critical delamination shearstress were found for the coatings, indicating higher adhesion athigher carbon contents.