Preparation and Investigation of the Mechanical Behavior of Temporary Zinc Alloys as Biodegradable Implants

The development of Mg and Fe based biomaterials in the past decade has been extensively studied as biodegradable material for medical applications. The development of this material is limited in terms of its suitability for clinical applications. Zn-based alloys began to be an alternative to be studied as a substitute for Mg and Fe based biomaterials. Zn-based alloys have a moderate degradation rate but have low mechanical properties, so other elements need to be added to improve their mechanical properties. In this study, the added elements are silver and Zirconium. Compared to pure Zinc the mechanical strength was enhanced significantly for all tested Zinc alloys. Accordingly, we design four alloys (pure Zinc, Zinc+0.4 Silver, Zinc +0.4 Zirconium and Zinc + 0.4 Silver+ 0.4 Zirconium) wt.%. The alloys are developed by stir casting process and homogenized at 280 C° for 1 hour. The Vickers hardness and compression tests of alloys were investigated. The hardness value of zinc based alloy is (64.28 kg/mm2) increased to (100.53kg/mm2) for (Zn­Ag­Zr) alloy, and the improvement percentage of hardness to (Zn­Ag­Zr) alloy arrived to maximum (56.3%). In addition, the compression value of zinc based alloy is (165.95 MPa) increased to (307.76 MPa) for (Zn­Ag­Zr) alloy, and the improvement percentage of compression test to (Zn­Ag­Zr) alloy is (85.45%). So (Zn­Ag­Zr) alloy is considered the best alloy to enhance compressive strength where achieve higher improvement percentage