In the aim to decrease the degradation rate of magnesium in simulated body fluid, pure magnesium was treated by two different routes, i) by soaking specimens in an HF aqueous solution at 30oC for 30 min and ii) by heating specimens at 345oC for 15 min. The treated samples were immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37oC for different periods of time. Samples with no treatment were also immersed in SBF. The magnesium released into the SBF, the weight loss of the specimens and the pH of SBF increased with time of immersion in all the cases. The heat treated samples showed a lower degradation rate and lower pH values. A substantial decrease of magnesium concentration in the SBF corresponding to the heat treated samples was also observed. However, the degradation rate of the heat treated samples remains being extremely high. On the other hand, a bonelike apatite layer was observed after only 3 days of immersion in SBF in all the cases. The thickness of this layer increased with time of immersion. Further research needs to be performed to decrease the degradation rate. However, these results indicate that magnesium is a highly potential bioactive material for biomedical applications.

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