Surgical procedure is always of risk for patients and binds medical professionals and costs. Bioabsorbable bone screws with defined corrosion behavior are supposed to reduce the number of necessary surgeries, due to omitting of implant extraction after full recovery. Advantageous is the low corrosion resistance of magnesium, which allows biodegradation of the implant directly at the bone after the fracture recovery. Unfavorable is the quick and uneven corrosion behavior of magnesium because of drastically stability loss, which aggravates the use in human body. The corrosion behavior can be circumvented by surface modification of plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) on magnesium to increase the corrosion resistance, this leads to a more uniform corrosion morphology compared to pure magnesium substrate. Nevertheless, under cyclic load the PEO surface favors crack initiation due to its porous structure thus, a premature corrosion fracture of the implants can be expected. The aim of this ZIM-Project is to develop a suitable implant prototype with defined corrosion and corrosion fatigue behavior to ensure fully fracture healing followed by a full implant degradation.

Duration: 2022 until 2024