MEDICAL
Diamond has extreme potential in the medical device field as it is one of the most biocompatible materials known. For instance, it has been reported the chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond films are as biocompatible as titanium and 316 stainless steel, but with less in vitro and in vivo cellular adhesion and activation. Combining this biocompatibility with diamond’s corrosion resistance and chemical inertness, there are few, if any, know materials better suited for biological applications . Unlike most materials used in in vivo and in vitro bio applications, diamond can be readily patterned to create a myriad of shapes to suite almost any applications. Diamond, and the resulting patterned surfaces can also be functionalized with a variety of species including oxygen, hydrogen, amines, halogens, and most complex groups to provide the desired surface interactions.
(Examples patterned CVD diamond films by dry etching methods.)
In addition, diamond-based scalpels are used for variety of medical and cosmetic applications.
Heyaru produces single-crystal synthetic diamonds that are used in the healthcare industry. These include laser treatments and medical scalpels that are used in plastic surgery, neurosurgery and ophthalmology.
Single-crystal synthetic diamonds are quite effective in many ways because of the following properties:
- Highest hardness
- High refractive index and strong dispersion
- High level of thermal conductivity
- Wide range of optical transparency
In advanced healthcare applications such as therapy for eye cancer patients where synthetic diamond-based radiation detectors ensure the delivery of the correct dosage to precisely target only the cancer-affected tissue and not the healthy tissue around it.
