Biocompatibility of ultrafine grained zircaloy-2 produced by cryorolling for medical applications

The present work deals with development of ultrafine grained zircaloy-2 and studying its potential for orthopedic application. The multimodal structure, i.e. the combination of coarse, ultrafine grained (UFG) and nanograined structures of zircaloy-2 is obtained by cryorolling the bulk alloy followed by annealing at 400 °C, and 450 °C for 30 min. An estimation of surface wettability of the alloy was obtained through contact angle measurement. The bioactivity of the alloy samples was investigated by incubating bone marrow derived stem cells. The cellular attachment, adhesion and proliferation at different intervals of incubation were characterized by scanning fluorescent microscopy and MTT assay. Cell culture results indicated that liquid nitrogen rolled alloy samples exhibited excellent in-vitro biocompatibility together with satisfactory bioactivity. Excellent genomic expressions were observed for zircaloy 2 processed by cryorolling. - Highlights: • Zircaloy-2 with ultrafine and nanograins was produced by cryorolling. • Enhanced mechanical properties were obtained as compared to bulk zircaloy-2. • Better cell attachment/viability is due to nanotextured surface of the zircaloy-2. • Excellent genomic expressions were observed for zircaloy-2