"Laser surface texturing of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy
to improve adhesion in biomedical application
Cardiovascular stent have assumed a primary role to solve
heart problems related to constraints that lead to the
malfunctioning of a hollow organ. The research is shifting
more and more towards the creations of less invasive stent
having biocompatibility and biodegradability as primary
requirements. Metal that best meets both these
requirements and also the structural ones is Magnesium
and its alloys. The greatest limit to the use of this material
comes from its low corrosion resistance that it is
manifested at the body pH. The idea at the basis of this work
is to cover the Magnesium stent with a biodegradable
polymer to increase its resistance to corrosion. The
following paper focuses the study on the texturing
surface treatments, achievable by a laser beam, in order to
optimize the adhesion between the substrate and the
polymer. The Magnesium alloy used is AZ31. Studies of
surface modification through the mechanisms of the
remelting and microdrilling by laser have been performed
on the AZ31 surface. The characterization of the selected
surfaces in terms of roughness variations, changes in
wettability, oxides formation and geometry of the obtained
structures, led to the identification of a limited number of
conditions that will be further investigated.