Currently, permanent vascular stents
are fabricated using
titanium
and stainless steel implants that are nondegradable and offer high
stability, but they have certain disadvantages. For example, the prolonged
exposition of aggressive ions in the physiological media and the existence
of defects in the oxide film create conditions for corrosion to occur,
thus triggering unwanted biological events and compromising the mechanical
integrity of the implants. Moreover, when the implant does not need
to be permanent, there is the need to submit the patient for a second
surgery for implant removal. As a solution for nonpermanent implants,
biodegradable magnesium alloys have been deemed a promising substitute,
for example, for cardiovascular-related applications and the construction
of orthopedic devices. A biodegradable magnesium alloy (Mg–2.5Zn)
reinforced by zinc and eggshell was employed in this study as an environment-conscious
magnesium (eco) composite (Mg–2.5Zn–xES). Disintegrated melt deposition (DMD) was used to fabricate the
composite. Experimental studies were conducted to investigate the
biodegradation performance of Mg–Zn alloys containing 3 and
7 wt % eggshell (ES) in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37 °C.
Different corrosion techniques were used to study the corrosion behavior
of the Mg–2.5Zn–xES composites, including
weight loss measurements, hydrogen evolution, potentiodynamic polarization,
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and scanning vibrating
electrode technique (SVET). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled
with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to scrutinize
the corroded surfaces’ morphology and composition. The outcomes
indicated that Mg–2.5Zn–3ES possesses the lowest degradation
activity.