Alloying design of biodegradable zinc as promising bone implants for load-bearing applications

Hongtao Yang, Bo Jia, Zechuan Zhang, Xinhua Qu, Guannan Li, Wenjiao Lin, Donghui Zhu, Kerong Dai () and Yufeng Zheng ()
Additional contact information
Hongtao Yang: Peking University
Bo Jia: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Zechuan Zhang: Peking University
Xinhua Qu: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Guannan Li: Peking University
Wenjiao Lin: Lifetech Scientific (Shenzhen) Co Ltd
Donghui Zhu: Stony Brook University
Kerong Dai: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Yufeng Zheng: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Magnesium-based biodegradable metals (BMs) as bone implants have better mechanical properties than biodegradable polymers, yet their strength is roughly less than 350 MPa. In this work, binary Zn alloys with alloying elements Mg, Ca, Sr, Li, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Ag respectively, are screened systemically by in vitro and in vivo studies. Li exhibits the most effective strengthening role in Zn, followed by Mg. Alloying leads to accelerated degradation, but adequate mechanical integrity can be expected for Zn alloys when considering bone fracture healing. Adding elements Mg, Ca, Sr and Li into Zn can improve the cytocompatibility, osteogenesis, and osseointegration. Further optimization of the ternary Zn-Li alloy system results in Zn-0.8Li-0.4Mg alloy with the ultimate tensile strength 646.69 ± 12.79 MPa and Zn-0.8Li-0.8Mn alloy with elongation 103.27 ± 20%. In summary, biocompatible Zn-based BMs with strength close to pure Ti are promising candidates in orthopedics for load-bearing applications.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14153-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-14153-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14153-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().