Aqueous electrophoretic deposition and corrosion protection of borate glass coatings on 316 L stainless steel for hard tissue fixation

Abstract The present work was essentially concerned with an improvement of the biocompatibility of 316 L stainless steel (316 L SS) by coating its surface by bioactive borate glass layer using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique. Suspension of glass particles in double distilled water was used in this study as a coating suspension. The EPD parameters pH, applied voltage, glass concentration and time were optimized. The obtained coated substrates were investigated using FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, SEM/EDX analyses. The optimum conditions applied to obtain smooth, uniform, cracked-free, dense and adhesive layers with even glass particles distribution were achieved at voltage 35 V, pH 7 and 15 min deposition time. Additionally, the in vitro biodegradation was compared applying biochemical and electrochemical corrosion assessment of the developed glass coatings in two biological fluids, SBF (ISO 23,317) and DMEM (ISO 13,485) at body temperature (37 °C). The resulted coated 316 L SS specimens showed good corrosion resistance in both SBF and DMEM solutions at 37 °C using potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) techniques.