Texturizzazione laser della lega di magnesio AZ31 per migliorare l’adesione nelle applicazioni biomedicali

"Laser surface texturing of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy to improve adhesion in biomedical application Cardiovascular stent have assumed a primary role to solve heart problems related to constraints that lead to the malfunctioning of a hollow organ. The research is shifting more and more towards the creations of less invasive stent having biocompatibility and biodegradability as primary requirements. Metal that best meets both these requirements and also the structural ones is Magnesium and its alloys. The greatest limit to the use of this material comes from its low corrosion resistance that it is manifested at the body pH. The idea at the basis of this work is to cover the Magnesium stent with a biodegradable polymer to increase its resistance to corrosion. The following paper focuses the study on the texturing surface treatments, achievable by a laser beam, in order to optimize the adhesion between the substrate and the polymer. The Magnesium alloy used is AZ31. Studies of surface modification through the mechanisms of the remelting and microdrilling by laser have been performed on the AZ31 surface. The characterization of the selected surfaces in terms of roughness variations, changes in wettability, oxides formation and geometry of the obtained structures, led to the identification of a limited number of conditions that will be further investigated."