Electroformed iron as new biomaterial for degradable stents: development process and structure-properties relationship.

An electroforming technique was developed for fabricating iron foils targeted for application as biodegradable cardiovascular stent material. The microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion of electroformed iron (E-Fe) foils were evaluated and compared with those of pure iron made by casting and thermomechanical treatment (CTT-Fe), with 316L stainless steel (316L SS) and with other candidate metallic materials for biodegradable stents. Electron backscattered diffraction revealed an average grain size of 4 microm for E-Fe, resulting in a high yield (360 MPa) and ultimate tensile strength (423 MPa) being superior to those of other metallic biodegradable stent materials. Annealing at 550 degrees C was found to improve the ductility of the E-Fe from 8% to 18%. The corrosion rate of E-Fe in Hanks' solution, measured by potentiodynamic polarization, was higher than that of CTT-Fe, which had been found to have a slow in vivo degradation. The results showed that E-Fe possesses fine-grain microstructure, suitable mechanical properties and moderate corrosion rate as a degradable stent material.