Despite their good biocompatibility and adequate mechanical behavior, the main limitation of Mg alloys might be their high degradation rates in a physiological environment. In this study, a novel Mg-based alloy exhibiting an elastic modulus E = 42 GPa, Mg-1Ca-0.2Mn-0.6Zr, was synthesized and thermo-mechanically processed. In order to improve its performance as a temporary bone implant, a coating based on cellulose acetate (CA) was realized by using the dipping method. The formation of the polymer coating was demonstrated by FT-IR, XPS, SEM and corrosion behavior comparative analyses of both uncoated and CA-coated alloys. The potentiodynamic polarization test revealed that the CA coating significantly improved the corrosion resistance of the Mg alloy. Using a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments, the biocompatibility of both groups of biomaterials was assessed. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the media containing their extracts showed good cytocompatibility on MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts in terms of cell adhesion and spreading, viability, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. In vivo studies conducted in rats revealed that the intramedullary coated implant for fixation of femur fracture was more efficient in inducing bone regeneration than the uncoated one. In this manner, the present study suggests that the CA-coated Mg-based alloy holds promise for orthopedic aplications.

To evaluate the potential of β-Ti20Mo alloy as a dental material, we tested its corrosion behaviour in artificial saliva in comparison to that of cp-Ti. Open-circuit potential (E(OC)), potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used as electrochemical methods to characterize the corrosion behaviour of Ti20Mo alloy and cp-Ti, respectively. Corrosion current and passive current densities obtained from the polarization curves showed low values indicating a typical passive behaviour for Ti20Mo alloy. The EIS technique enabled us to study the nature of the passive film formed on the binary Ti20Mo alloy at various imposed potentials. The Bode phase spectra obtained for Ti20Mo alloy in artificial saliva exhibited two-time constants at higher potential (0.5 V, 1.0 V), indicating a two-layer structure. According to our experimental measurements, Ti20Mo alloy appears to possess superior corrosion resistance to that of cp-Ti in artificial saliva.

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