Novel alginate based coatings on Mg alloys

Coatings on yttrium doped magnesium (Mg4Y) alloy substrates were prepared using alginate hydrogels by dip coating method to improve the surface bioactive properties of the substrate. Furthermore, composite coatings containing nano-sized calcium phosphate corresponding to hydroxyapatite (HA) phase entrapped within alginate hydrogel were also synthesized on the Mg4Y substrates. Surface characteristics of these coated substrates have been investigated using FTIR-ATR, SEM and EDS. The results show that the coatings with alginate alone are not stable in vitro; however, incorporation of NanoCaPs slightly improves the stability of these coatings. In addition, these composite coatings showed cell attachments with fibronectin incorporation. These results indicate that alginate hydrogels have the potential to be used as bioactive coating materials for different biofunctional applications.