Hemocompatibility Assessment of 3C-SiC for Cardiovascular Applications

SiC as a Promising Material for Biosensing Applications in the Bloodstream
SiC is a polymorphic material, having approximately 170 different crystal organizations, but sharing a common stoichiometry (i.e., all forms contain bilayers of Si and C) [22]. Two of the hexagonal polytypes, 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC, have been fashioned in the past into electrode myocardial sensors and have shown low biofouling, nontoxicity, and, in general, good biocompatibility [23,24]. Amorphous and polycrystalline forms of silicon carbide, a-SiC and poly-SiC, have been used as coatings for many implantable biomedical devices, and clinical studies for bone prosthetics and heart stents have confirmed its biocompatibility.silicon carbide manufacturer

In Chapter 4, the in vitro biocompatibility of three skin/connective tissue cell lines was established by plating and culturing the cells onto the surfaces of the main polytypes of SiC: 3C-SiC, 4H-SiC, and 6H-SiC. The cell morphology, attachment to the substrate surface, successful cellular binding and proliferation were then evaluated and showed no qualitative difference in biocompatibility between these SiC polytypes [9].

In Chapter 6, the in vitro biocompatibility of neural cell lines to the same SiC polytypes, as well as diamond (both nano- and polycrystalline), glass, polyimide, etc., is reported. What is most interesting about this work is that 3C-SiC proved to be as biocompatible as polyimide, whereas the diamond surfaces exhibited cell proliferation and attachment that was below that of SiC and, in particular, 3C-SiC. So while the initial assessment presented in Chapter 4 showed an invariant biocompatibility for skin and connective tissue, for neural cells that story is altogether different. In this chapter, we will see that the vascular system also displays differences in hemocompatibility with, once again, 3C-SiC displaying optimum performance.

The demonstrated biocompatibility of 3C-SiC, together with its other properties, such as mechanical and chemical resilience as well as its potential to be fabricated into sensing devices or patterned grafts using traditional microfabrication techniques, make this material an ideal candidate for vascular applications.green silicon carbide powder

However, such applications cannot be realized until it is known for certain if this material stimulates thrombogenic behavior that would induce thrombus formation. This chapter looks to assess the hemocompatibility of 3C-SiC, so that its use in vascular applications can be assessed.