Diamond, which is known for its hardness and wear resistance, has been used in machining for hundreds of years as a super-hard tool material. Besides, it also has the advantages of good stability and biocompatibility, which is in line with the material requirements of surgical tools used for tissue resection. Therefore, it is also very popular in medical tools. In this article, we will introduce the super performance of diamond in the medical field.
According to the type of diamond, it can be divided into natural diamonds and artificial monocrystalline diamonds. The former is used for the material of the blades for surgical knives, while the latter is used for the coating of the blades.
During the operation, the extrusion and tearing of the surgical site by the diamond cutter are small, and the wound edges are neat and easy to heal. Currently, it is mainly used in ophthalmology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and stomatology, as well as biological tissue sections.
Human implants have been a hot topic in the field of medicine in recent years. However, in order to meet the physiological and mechanical environment of the human body, implant materials should first have good abrasion resistance, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and even regeneration performance.
The selection of implantation materials varies according to the implanted tissues, among which diamond materials have promising prospects in the fields of Stomatology and orthopedics.
When the clinical dental materials are resin materials, cobalt-chromium alloy, and pure titanium that have certain wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility, they are not ideal.
Nano-amorphous diamond has the characteristics of both diamond and nanomaterials, such as high hardness, high corrosion resistance, high surface activity, high transparency, high wear resistance, and good biocompatibility, so it is a more ideal oral material.
Nano-diamond can be used as a coating material for artificial joints. Traditional medical implants often use cobalt, chromium, and nickel, but some patients are allergic to the metals or have a reaction to them. The diamond coating has good biocompatibility. It will not cause a human rejection reaction and has the antibacterial property to inhibit the breeding of bacteria.
With the continuous progress of nanotechnology, scientists began to actively make use of the unique characteristics of nano-diamond particles, such as inertia and biocompatibility, in the field of medicine, including drug loading, labeling, protein separation, anti-cancer treatment, and sterilization.
The crystal surface of the nanocrystalline diamond has many functional groups, which can combine with drugs by the covalent bond or non-covalent bond, and transport drugs to target cells and organs for the use of drugs.
For example, the surface of nano-diamond can absorb insulin, maintain insulin activity and regulate release to achieve the best therapeutic effect; when nano-diamond is used to adsorb lysozyme, it can form lysozyme complex with higher antibacterial activity and non-invasiveness.
Nano-diamond has stable chemical properties. It is not easy to react with other materials and is a non-toxic and non-light bleaching agent. However, it can fluoresce, which makes nano-diamonds more suitable for cell marking than other fluorescent markers.
Nano-diamond has a large specific surface area, and the surface of the carboxyl, inner lipid, hydroxyl, ketone, and alkyl affinity of proteins, so nano-diamond can be used for protein separation. Its advantages include simplifying the process of protein purification, shortening the time of separation and eliminating special chromatographic equipment, etc.
The surface of nanodiamond has many chemical groups, which can be used in tumor imaging and treatment, and has become the focus of cancer treatment. Scientists have found that paclitaxel binds to nano-diamond and has higher anticancer activity than single paclitaxel.
Thank you for reading our article and we hope you enjoyed it. If you want to know more about the diamond and the super performances of diamonds in the medical field, you can visit http://www.samaterials.com for more information.
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This was an excellent article!
I didn’t realize all of the amazing uses of the diamond!