Engineering the Perfect PEEK

While PEEK is an ideal material choice for delivery systems because of its tensile strength, column strength, and radial strength, it lacks the lubricity desired for navigating the tortuous pathways of the vasculature. Tackling this challenge head on, Zeus has developed a technique for producing PEEK surface-engineered tubing that combines the strength of PEEK with the lubricity of fluoropolymers.

There are a variety of ways that materials scientists have altered PEEK's properties, Irina Roof, staff material scientist at Zeus, told MPMN at MD&M West this week. "We can add fillers or we can change the dimension," she explains. "But with the addition of fillers, the material won't be 100% PEEK, so you compromise other properties because you're adding something to it. It's no longer a virgin material you're working with."

Instead of fiddling with fillers, Zeus strove to enhance lubricity while maintaining the polymer's purity. To do so, the company engineered the surface of the material and altered its lubricity by decreasing the coefficient of friction. Early independent testing revealed a 14% decrease in the coefficient of friction versus a PEEK control sample, Roof says. She adds that more recent data indicate the decrease could be even more substantial.

Customers have also reported a decrease in drag force with Zeus's PEEK engineered-surface tubing, according to Roof. "As you get to tortuous pathways of your vascular system, you find that increased drag; that drag is actually accumulating as you're pushing through," she says. "With surface-engineered materials, that is dissipated. Therefore, you have the pushability and the lubricity."

Zeus plans to leverage this platform methodology and apply it to other materials as well. In fact, the company is working on further enhancing the lubricity of fluoropolymers.

Shana Leonard is the group editorial director, medical content, for UBM Canon.