Corrosion characteristics of zinc-zirconium alloy in c-SBF and its biocompatibility in vitro/in vivo

Zinc-based metals have attracted attention as biodegradable implant materials for medical applications. New alloying systems are still being tried. In this study, three kinds of extruded zinc-zirconium alloys (R1, R2, and R3) were prepared, and two of the most important performance of corrosion characteristics and biocompatibility in vitro/in vivo were carefully examined. We found that zirconium content did not linearly influence the corrosion behavior. Zirconium improved the zinc-zirconium alloy corrosion potential, but the strengthening effect was weakened due to the ZrZn22 phase, leading to microgalvanic corrosion. The alloy with zirconium content of 0.8% (R2) showed high corrosion resistance and minimum initial corrosion rate in the corrected simulated body fluid. R2 alloy also exhibited favorable cytocompatibility and biological histocompatibility.