Study of the adhesion of thin plasma fluorocarbon coatings resisting plastic deformation for stent applications

Metallic intravascular stents are medical devices (316L stainless steel) used to support the narrowed lumen of atherosclerotic stenosed arteries. Despite the success of bare metal stents, restenosis remains the main complication after 3-6 months of implantation. To reduce the restenosis rate of bare metal stents, stent coating is an interesting alternative. Firstly, it allows the modification of the surface properties, which is in contact with the biological environment. Secondly, the coating could eventually act as a carrier for drug immobilization and release. Moreover, the in vivo stent implantation requires in situ stent expansion. This mandatory step generates local plastic deformation of up to 25% and may cause coating failures such as cracking and delamination. Fluorocarbon films were selected in this study as a potential stent coating, mainly due to their chemical inertness, high hydrophobicity, protein retention capabilities and thromboresistance properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the adhesion properties of fluorocarbon films of three different thicknesses deposited by plasma polymerization in C2F6/H2 on 316L stainless steel substrates. A previously developed small punch test was used to deform the coated samples. According to atomic force microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterizations, among the coatings with different thicknesses studied, only those with a thickness of 36 nm exhibited the required cohesion and interfacial adhesion to resist the stent expansion without cracking or delaminating. Otherwise, cracks were detected in the coatings having thicknesses equal or superior to 100 nm, indicating a lack of cohesion