Preparation and Characterization of Hydroxyapatite Coating on AZ31 Mg Alloy for Implant Applications

Magnesium alloys as biodegradable metal implants in orthopaedic research received a lot of interest in recent years. They have attractive biological properties including being essential to human metabolism, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. However, magnesium can corrode too rapidly in the high-chloride environment of the physiological system, loosing mechanical integrity before the tissue has sufficiently healed. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) coating was proposed to decrease the corrosion rate and improve the bioactivity of magnesium alloy. Apatite has been cathodically deposited on the surface of Mg alloy from solution that composed of 3 mM Ca(H2PO4)2 and 7 mM CaCl2 at various applied potentials. The growing of HAp was confirmed on the surface of the coatings after immersion in SBF solution for 7 days. The coating obtained at -1.4 V showed higher corrosion resistance with bioactive behaviors.