Study on the Enhanced Degradable Rate of the Zn-0.4Li Alloys as Biodegradable Implants by Anodization

Biodegradable Zn-0.4Li alloys have been considered as medical implants due to their excellent mechanical properties and desirable biocompatibility. In this work, anodization was applied to modified corrosion resistance of the Zn-0.4Li alloy by forming a uniform and neat flower-like nanowire coating on the surface. After anodization for 7 min, the anodized Zn-0.4Li alloy had a yield strength of 253.6 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 389.5 MPa, and elongation at a break of 66.0%. The corrosion rate of the Zn-0.4Li-7 min sample reached 0.5741 mm/y in the SBF, which was almost 18 times higher than that of the Zn-0.4Li alloy. The anodized Zn-0.4Li alloy exhibited higher antibacterial properties than that of the Zn-0.4Li alloy against <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>. These results suggested that anodization may be an effective method to modulate the corrosion behavior of zinc alloys, which can be applied in the surface modification of biodegradable implants.