Pyrolytic carbon (PyC) is widely used in manufacturing commercial artificial heart valve disks (HVD). Although, PyC is commonly used in HVD, it is not the best material for this application since its blood compatibility is not ideal for prolonged clinical use. As a result thrombosis often occurs and the patients are required to take anti-coagulation drugs. In this paper, we report the mechanical properties of PyC-HVD, namely, strength, wear resistance and coefficient of friction. The strength of the material was assessed using Brinell indentation tests. The micro-structural properties of PyC were characterised using XRD, Raman spectroscopy and SEM analysis. Also, in this paper we report the preparation of freestanding nanocrystalline diamond films (FSND) using the time-modulated chemical vapour deposition (TMCVD) process. Furthermore, the sol-gel technique was used to uniformly coat PyC-HVD with dense, nanocrystalline-titanium oxide (nc-TiO2) coatings. The as-grown nc-TiO2 coatings were characterised for microstructure using SEM and XRD analysis.