Zein-Bioactive Glass nanocomposite Coating on Magnesium Alloy Substrate for Orthopedic Applications

Abstract

Excellent mechanical strength and biodegradable characteristics of magnesium alloys have sparked considerable interest in orthopedic applications. The utilization of magnesium alloys in orthopedic applications has been restricted due to their brittleness caused by high corrosion rate in biological environments. One of the best techniques for increasing corrosion resistance of these alloys is surface coating. For the first time, the present work aims to dip-coat zein-bioactive glass (BG) nanocomposite on AZ31B magnesium alloy. The alloy surface was also coated by native zein as a control coating. BG nanoparticles required for zein and BG (zein_BG) composite were synthesized by a bio-inspired method using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a template. The formation of BG particles was affirmed by FTIR showing characteristic Si-O-Si and Si-O– peaks. Nano-size of BG particles with an average diameter of 6.67 ± 0.06 nm was reported by TEM. SEM micrographs revealed successful deposition of zein and zein_BG coatings on the magnesium alloy surfaces. High-resolution XPS analysis on zein_BG-coated Mg alloy immersed in HBSS revealed the corrosion deposition of Mg(OH)2, MgHPO4.H2O, CaHPO4.H2O, SiO2, MgCO3, and CaCO3 on the substrate surface. More than twofold wettability, 95% adhesion strength and 14-fold increase in surface roughness were reported for zein_BG-coated magnesium alloy compared to the bare surface. Measurements of weight loss in zein and zein_BG-coated alloy substrates in Hanks Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) for 10 d at 37°C showed a drastic decrease in weight loss of substrates after coating. As a result, zein_BG-coated substrate was observed to possess the maximum protective efficacy (95.99%) against corrosion. Interestingly, electrochemical measurements revealed a vast decrease in corrosion current density (2.41 E−6 A.cm−2) of zein_BG-coated substrate compared to the uncoated substrate (3.04 E−4 A.cm−2). Electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) confirmed capacitive behavior of zein_BG-coated alloy substrate. These findings demonstrated that simple zein_BG composite dip coating was a successful corrosion-resistant implant coating on magnesium alloy surface for orthopedic applications.