Fracture, fatigue and indentation behavior of pyrolytic carbon for biomedical applications

The fracture, fatigue and indentation properties of pyrolytic carbon, both as a monolithic material and as a coating on a graphite substrate, are described in light of its use for biomedical implant applications, specifically for the manufacture of mechanical heart valve prostheses. From the perspective of determining properties that are important for the prediction of safe structural lifetimes in such prostheses, it is found that by traditional engineering standards, pyrolytic carbon has low damage tolerance, i.e., fracture toughness values between 1 and 3 MPa√m and susceptibility to subcritical crack growth by both cyclic fatigue and stress-corrosion cracking (static fatigue). Subcritical crack-growth rates are evaluated in simulated physiological environments for both through-thickness 'long' cracks, and for physically 'small' surface cracks, the latter measurements being performed for cracks initiated at hardness indents. The unusual deformation characteristics of indentation in pyrolytic carbon are described based on instrumented microhardness indentation and scanning probe microscopy (AFM/STM) studies.