Mesoporous Carbon as Galvanic-Corrosion Activator Accelerates Fe Degradation

Abstract

Iron (Fe) has attracted intensive attention as a bone implant material because of its inherent biodegradability, favorable biocompatibility and mechanical properties. Nevertheless, it degrades too slowly in a physiological environment, which limits its further clinical application. In this work, mesoporous carbon (MC) was introduced into Fe bone implant manufactured via a laser-additive manufacturing process. Particularly, MC possesses a noble standard corrosion potential and excellent electrical conductivity, thus acting as an effective cathode and activating micro-galvanic corrosion in the Fe matrix. More importantly, its high specific surface area enhanced the area ratio between cathode and anode, which further enhanced the galvanic corrosion effect. As a consequence, the corrosion rate was enhanced from 0.09 to 0.24 mm/year based on immersion tests. Besides, Fe/MC composite exhibited good cytocompatibility, as well as excellent mechanical properties. The positive results proved that the Fe/MC composite shows great potential as a bone implant.

Obtaining, Characterization and Applications of Advanced Materials

“…Another article [3] with a topic on a close field of advanced materials, focuses on the study of implants based on iron (Fe) alloys, which has attracted attention in recent years due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility and superior mechanical properties. However, too slow degradation in a physiological environment limits its further clinical application.…”

Magnetic field‐assisted photochemical oxidation of benzyl alcohol to corresponding aldehydes by introducing TiO2(P25)‐ZnO/Fe3+ as a novel nanophotocatalyst

“…Iron (Fe) has attracted intensive attention as a bone implant material because of its inherent biodegradability, favorable biocompatibility, and mechanical properties. [ 32 ]…”