from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Due to the high biocompatibility of magnesium, magnesium based alloys are considered as suitable materials for the production of biodegradable implants such as the fixators of fractured bones or stents. The main insufficiencies of pure magnesium are lower yield and ultimate strength and high corrosion rate. As a consequence implants are degraded quickly and lose necessary mechanical properties in human organism before the tissue is sufficiently healed. Moreover, the problems with hydrogen bubbles and pH increase can cause serious medical complications. In present study, the mechanical and corrosion properties of pure Mg, Mg-4Nd and WE33 in the as-cast state are characterized. Polarization curves and EIS measurements were used to estimate corrosion resistance of studied materials. Although RE (Rare Earth) elements are often considered to improve mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of Mg based alloys, both Mg-4Nd and WE33 were characterized by significantly improved mechanical properties; however, corrosion resistance of both materials was strongly deteriorated compared to the pure Mg.
Keywords: magnesium, rare-earth elements, tensile properties, corrosion behaviour© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.