Salt Preform Texturing of Absorbable Zn Substrates for Bone-Implant Applications

Surface roughness is an important factor in improving the bone-implant contact area to enhance bone regeneration, yet this aspect has not been applied to absorbable metals. Textured zinc surfaces with varying degrees of surface roughness were produced using a salt-preform method with fine- and coarse-grained salts and compared with a polished control sample. The resulting surfaces were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, surface roughness, corrosion rates, and in vitro cytotoxicity. The resulting textured surfaces exhibit micron-sized cavities and increased roughness consistent with the initial salt particle size. The corrosion rate was shown to accelerate significantly compared with the polished control sample, and pre-osteoblasts displayed healthy morphologies on the textures. The results confirm textured zinc surfaces support cell adhesion and can be used to control the corrosion rate. This study represents an important intermediate step that can be applied to porous absorbable metal scaffolds for bone-implant applications.