Pure iron has been considered as a promising candidate for biodegradable implant applications. However, a faster degradation rate of pure iron is needed to meet the clinical requirement. In this work, metal vapor vacuum arc technology was adopted to implant zinc ions into the surface of pure iron. Results showed that the implantation depth of zinc ions was about 60 nm. The degradation rate of pure iron was found to be accelerated after zinc ion implantation. The cytotoxicity tests revealed that the implanted zinc ions brought a slight increase on cytotoxicity of the tested cells. In terms of hemocompatibility, the hemolysis of zinc ion implanted pure iron was lower than 2%. However, zinc ions might induce more adhered and activated platelets on the surface of pure iron. Overall, zinc ion implantation can be a feasible way to accelerate the degradation rate of pure iron for biodegradable applications.
Keywords: biocompatibility; biodegradable metals; iron; zinc ion implantation.