Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) film coating on an inner-wall of cylindrical textile materials by r.f. plasma CVD

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films have been applied to polymeric materials such as biomedical devices. However, clinical applications of a-C:H film coating for irregular structures have been limited. In this study, a-C:H film was coated onto inner-wall of a cylindrical textile material such as synthetic vascular graft, which was made of expanded form polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) using radio frequency (r.f.) plasma CVD technique with cylindrical electrode. The purpose of such coating is to improve cytocompatibility of the ePTFE vascular graft inner-wall surface. The surface properties of the a-C:H film was estimated using IR, Raman, XPS, and contact angle measurement of the film surface. The a-C:H films were fabricated uniformly on each fiber of the ePTFE vascular graft. Additionally, mouse fibroblasts (NIH 3T3) were used in a cell culture to investigate the effect of cytocompatibility on the cell growth. As a result, the a-C:H film coating induced cell adhesion and growth. The a-C:H film coating provided cell viability and presented improvement of cytocompatibility of the ePTFE vascular graft.