Study of the Adhesion and Biocompatibility of Nanocrystalline Diamond (NCD) Films on 3C-SiC Substrates

Abstract

AbstractThe unique material characteristics of silicon carbide (SiC) and nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) present solutions to many problems in conventional MEMS applications and especially for biologically compatible devices. Both materials have a wide bandgap along with excellent optical, thermal and mechanical properties. Initial experiments were performed for NCD films grown on 3C-SiC using a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) reactor. It was observed from the atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis that the NCD films on 3C-SiC possess a more uniform grain structure, with sizes ranging from approximately 5 – 10 nm, whereas on the Si surface, the NCD has large, non-unioform inclusions of grains ≈1 μm in size. The in vitro biocompatibility performance of NCD/3C-SiC was measured utilizing 2 immortalized neural cell lines: H4 human neuroglioma (ATCC #HTB-148) and PC12 rat pheochromocytoma (ATCC #CRL-1721). MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used to measure viability of the cells for 96 hours and live/ fixed cell. AFM was performed to determine the general cell morphology. The H4 cell line shows a good biocompatibility level with hydrogen treated NCD as compared with the cell treated polystyrene control well, while the PC12 cells show decreased viability on the NCD surfaces.