Coating of cardiovascular stents with a semiconductor to improve their hemocompatibility.

Thrombogenesis on artificial surfaces can be described as an electron transfer reaction. To inhibit this oxidation process and thereby achieve high hemocompatibility, a surface requires semiconducting properties. However, because all known solid semiconductors are extremely brittle, the requirements for high hemocompatibility and mechanical stability cannot be met by any single material. Therefore, a hybrid design is introduced as a new approach to improve the hemocompatibility of cardiovascular stents.