Abstract :

Innovation of late has been focused on design and detailed understanding of the physical and mechanical properties required to design improvised medical devices such as scaffolds, stents, implants and prostheses with biocompatible biomaterial. To improve performance and extend life of medical devices, thermophysical, chemical, physiochemical and mechanical analysis play important role. Also, synthetic polymers have better controlled physical and mechanical properties and they can be tailored for better medical care for both soft and hard tissues. The major challenges are to develop, design, manufacture and characterization of medical devices which are compatible to physiologically relevant strain conditions, elastic and mechanical properties of native tissue. The objective of this paper is to study deformation mechanism, mechanical and thermal characterization of an ePTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) tubular structure considering its applications in real life such as stent, stent grafts or stent covering. It is expected due to unique deformation mechanism called auxeticity ? in addition to satisfactory thermophysical, mechanical and pysiochemical characteristics stent will offer promising results. Therefore, it will be good for improving the quality of life.