Research on a Zn-Cu alloy as a biodegradable material for potential vascular stents application

• Zn-4 wt.%Cu is proposed as a biodegradable vascular stents material.
• Zn-4Cu alloy shows good mechanical properties.
• Zn-4Cu exhibits low and uniform corrosion behavior.
• Zn-4Cu shows acceptable cytotoxicity and pronounced antibacterial effect.

Zn-based alloys have been viewed as new potential materials for biodegradable implants, such as cardiovascular stents, mainly in consideration of their lower corrosion rate when compared with that of Mg alloys. In this study we developed a new Zinc-4 wt.%Copper (Zn-4Cu) alloy as a biodegradable material. Hot extrusion was applied to Zn-4Cu to refine the microstructure and consequently improve its mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. After extrusion, dendritic CuZn5 phases were broken and distributed along the extrusion direction. The grains were refined obviously due to dynamical recrystallization. The yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation of the as-extruded alloy are 250 ± 10 MPa, 270 ± 10 MPa and 51 ± 2%, respectively. The corrosion rate of the as-extruded alloy in Hank's solution is about 9.41(± 1.34) μm year− 1. In vitro evaluation shows that Zn-4Cu presents acceptable toxicity to human endothelial cells, and could effectively inhibit bacteria adhesion and biofilm formation. The present study indicates that the as-extruded Zn-4Cu alloy exhibits excellent strength and ductility, uniform and slow degradation, good biocompatibility and significant antibacterial effect, which make it an excellent candidate material for biodegradable implants, especially for cardiovascular stents application.