TY - GEN A1 - Jeličić, Aleksandra A1 - Friedrich, Alwin A1 - Jeremić, Katarina A1 - Siekmeyer, Gerd A1 - Taubert, Andreas T1 - Polymer hydrogel/polybutadiene/iron oxide nanoparticle hybrid actuators for the characterization of NiTi implants N2 - One of the main issues with the use of nickel titanium alloy (NiTi) implants in cardiovascular implants (stents) is that these devices must be of very high quality in order to avoid subsequent operations due to failing stents. For small stents with diameters below ca. 2 mm, however, stent characterization is not straightforward. One of the main problems is that there are virtually no methods to characterize the interior of the NiTi tubes used for fabrication of these tiny stents. The current paper reports on a robust hybrid actuator for the characterization of NiTi tubes prior to stent fabrication. The method is based on a polymer/hydrogel/magnetic nanoparticle hybrid material and allows for the determination of the inner diameter at virtually all places in the raw NiTi tubes. Knowledge of the inner structure of the raw NiTi tubes is crucial to avoid regions that are not hollow or regions that are likely to fail due to defects inside the raw tube. The actuator enables close contact of a magnetic polymer film with the inner NiTi tube surface. The magnetic signal can be detected from outside and be used for a direct mapping of the tube interior. As a result, it is possible to detect critical regions prior to expensive and slow stent fabrication processes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - paper 161 KW - NiTi KW - inner surface KW - hydrogel KW - polybutadiene KW - magnetic nanoparticles Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-48589 ER -