This study aims to determine whether human monocytes/macrophages culturedon pyrolytic carbon (PYC) can oxidize the surface. Oxidation of the pyrolitic carbon is achieved by a number of methods, and surface analytical methods are employed to compare the surfaces so obtained to those observed after cell adhesion studies have been performed. SIMS has proven to be the most useful technique to characterize the prepared surface as well as to determine how successful various cleaning strategies are in removing adherent proteins and cells, which is necessary for subsequent sample analysis.