Dissolution and precipitation behaviors of silicon-containing ceramic coating on Mg–Zn–Ca alloy in simulated body fluid

We prepared Si-containing and Si-free coatings on Mg–1.74Zn–0.55Ca alloy by micro-arc oxidation. The dissolution and precipitation behaviors of Si-containing coating in simulated body fluid (SBF) were discussed. Corrosion products were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). Electrochemical workstation, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES), flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and pH meter were employed to detect variations of electrochemical parameter and ions concentration respectively. Results indicate that the fast formation of calcium phosphates is closely related to the SiOxn− groups, which induce the heterogeneous nucleation of amorphous hydroxyapatite (HA) by sorption of calcium and phosphate ions.