Magnesium-based materials are interesting alternatives for medical implants, as they have promising mechanical and biological properties. Thanks to them, it is possible to create biodegradable materials for medical application, which would reduce both costs and time of treatment. Magnesium as the sole material, however, it is not enough to support this function. It is important to determine proper alloying elements and methods. A viable method for creating such alloys is mechanical alloying, which can be used to design the structure and properties for proper roles. Mechanical alloying is highly influenced by the milling time of the alloy, as the time of the process affects many properties of the milled powders. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were carried out to study the powder morphology and chemical composition of Mg65Zn30Ca4Gd1 powders. Moreover, the powder size was assessed by granulometric method and the Vickers hardness test was used for microhardness testing. The samples were milled for 6 min, 13, 20, 30, 40, and 70 h. The hardness correlated with the particle size of the samples. After 30 h of milling time, the average value of hardness was equal to 168 HV and it was lower after 13 (333 HV), 20 (273 HV), 40 (329 HV), and 70 (314 HV) h. The powder particles average size increased after 13 (31 μm) h of milling time, up to 30 (45–49 μm) hours, and then sharply decreased after 40 (28 μm) and 70 (12 μm) h.

Alloys based on magnesium are of considerable scientific interest as they have very attractive mechanical and biological properties that could be used to manufacture biodegradable materials for medical applications. Mechanical alloying is a very suitable process to obtain alloys that are normally hard to produce as it allows for solid-state diffusion via highly energetic milling, producing fine powders. Powders obtained by this method can be sintered into nearly net-shape products, moreover, their phase and chemical composition can be specifically tailored. This work aims to investigate the effect of milling time on the density, microstructure, phase composition, and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Ca-Pr powders processed by high energy mechanical alloying (HEMA) and consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Thus, the results of XRD phase analysis, particle size distribution (granulometry), density, mechanical properties, SEM investigation of mechanically alloyed and sintered Mg-Zn-Ca-Pr alloy are presented in this manuscript. The obtained results illustrate how mechanical alloying can be used to produce amorphous and crystalline materials, which can be sintered and demonstrates how the milling time impacts their microstructure, phase composition, and resulting mechanical properties.

Purpose: This paper explains mechanical synthesis which uses powders or material chunks in order to obtain phases and alloys. It is based on an example of magnesium powders with various additives, such as zinc, calcium and yttrium. Design/methodology/approach: The following experimental techniques were used: X-ray diffraction (XRD) method, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), determining particle size distributions with laser measuring, Vickers microhardness. Findings: The particle-size of a powder and microhardness value depend on the milling time. Research limitations/implications: Magnesium gained its largest application area by creating alloys in combination with other elements. Magnesium alloys used in various industry contain various elements e.g. rare-earth elements (REE). Magnesium alloys are generally made by casting processes. Consequently, the search for new methods of obtaining materials such as mechanical alloying (MA) offers new opportunities. The MA allows for the production of materials with completely new physico-chemical properties. Originality/value: Thanks to powder engineering it is possible to manufacture materials with specific chemical composition. These materials are characterized by very high purity, specified porosity, fine-grain structure, complicated designs. These are impossible to obtain with traditional methods. Moreover it is possible to refine the process even further minimalizing the need for finishing or machining, making the material losses very small or negligible. Furthermore material manufactured in such a way can be thermally or chemically processed without any problems.

Magnesium-based alloys are widely used in the construction, automotive, aviation and medical industries. There are many parameters that can be modified during their synthesis in order to obtain an alloy with the desired microstructure and advantageous properties. Modifications to the chemical composition and parameters of the synthesis process are of key importance. In this work, an Mg-based alloy with a rare-earth element addition was synthesized by means of mechanical alloying (MA). The aim of this work was to study the effect of milling times on the Mg-based alloy with a rare-earth addition on its structure and microhardness. A powder mixture of pure elements was milled in a SPEX 8000D high energy shaker ball mill under an argon atmosphere using a stainless steel container and balls. The sample was mechanically alloyed at the following milling times: 3, 5, 8 and 13 h, with 0.5 h interruptions. The microstructure and hardness of samples were investigated. The Mg-based powder alloy was examined by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and using a Vickers microhardness test. The results showed that microhardness of the sample milled for 13 h was higher than that of those with milling time of 3, 5 and 8 h.

The Ca 50 Mg 20 Zn 12 Cu 18 was assessed with different methods in order to characterize its basic characteristics, and to determine whether the amorphous alloy of such composition would be applicable as an implant material. The XRD analysis was conducted to conclude the structure of the initial material. The Ca 50 Mg 20 Zn 12 Cu 18 ingot sample demonstrates crystalline structure containing two main intermetallic phases, however as-cast plates show features of an amorphous material, revealing the characteristic amorphous halo on the x-ray patterns. It was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy method and fracture images revealing chevron pattern morphology with shell type fracture. Corrosion resistance, was studied using the potentiostatic analysis. The amorphous samples show higher resistance than the crystalline one. Post corrosion surface of the Ca 50 Mg 20 Zn 12 Cu 18 alloy exhibits high concentration of magnesium and calcium hydroxides, forming the globular structures in large aggregates of spherical units.