The microstructure, mechanical property, electrochemical behavior and biocompatibility of magnesium alloy (BioDe MSM™) were studied in the present work. The experimental results demonstrated that grain refining induced by extrusion improves the alloy strength significantly from 162 MPa for the as-cast alloy to 241 MPa for the as-extruded one. The anticorrosion properties of the as-extruded alloy also increased. Furthermore, the hemolysis ratio was decreased from 4.7% for the as-cast alloy to 2.9% for the as-extruded one, both below 5%. BioDe MSM™ alloy shows good biocompatibility after being implanted into the dorsal muscle and the femoral shaft of the New Zealand rabbit, respectively, and there are no abnormalities after short-term implantation. In vivo observation indicated that the corrosion rate of this alloy varies with different implantation positions, with higher degradation rate in the femur than in the muscle.

Nano Al films were prepared on AZ31 magnesium alloy samples by DC magnetron sputtering. The effects of sputtering power on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of the Al film were investigated. The results show that the surface of aluminum film is dense and polycrystalline state, and it is oriented along the Al (111) crystal plane. The grain size of Al film first increases and then decreases with the increase of sputtering power. When the sputtering power exceeds 100 W, there is no insignificant effect on the orientation of the Al crystals and the corrosion current density of the samples with Al film are reduced by two orders of magnitude. The corrosion resistance of the magnesium alloy samples with the Al film magnetron sputtered varies with the sputtering power. Compared with low sputtering power, the Al film sputtered by high power has the most excellent corrosion resistance, but too high sputtering power will lead to micro cracks on the Al film, which will adversely affect the corrosion resistance.

In order to enhance the corrosion resistance of AZ31 magnesium alloy, graphene-modified oily epoxy resin coating (G/OEP) were prepared on the surface of magnesium alloy. SEM observations show that graphene has fewer surface defects, and can significantly improve the surface quality of the coating and reduce defects. FI-TR testing shows that coating are mainly composed of epoxy resin (polyurethane) and its corresponding curing agent. Electrochemical testing shows that the coating can provide good corrosion protection for magnesium alloy. Compared with the corrosion current density of magnesium alloy of 6.20 × 10−7 A/cm2, the G/OEP can significantly reduce the corrosion current density to 6.96 × 10−12 A/cm2. Analysis of the morphology of the coating after electrochemical corrosion found that graphene can improve the shielding ability of the coating to corrosive media, and reduce the damage of corrosion to the coating structure, and enhance the corrosion resistance of the coating. The content of graphene for excellent corrosion resistance of coating during this experiment is 0.6 wt%. The graphene can fill the defects generally in the coating during the curing process to prevent substrate from penetration of corrosive media caused by the density and hydrophobicity of coating are increased.

Synthesis of biodegradable Mg-Zn alloy using mechanical alloying: Effect of ball to powder weight ratio AIP Conference Proceedings 1756, 020001 (2016) and mechanical properties, as well as good biocompatibility, and are expected to totally biodegrade in the body environment. The microstructure mechanical properties, corrosion behaviors and hemolysis of biodegradable Mg-Sn-Zn alloy were investigated under three extrusion ratios in the present work. It is revealed that the as-extruded microstructure is obviously refined with smaller grains compared with the as-cast structure while some twins form simultaneously. The tensile strengths of the as-extruded alloys fabricated with the higher extrusion ratio is 249MPa, and elongations is 16.3% respectively. Besides, the corrosion rate of as-extruded magnesium alloys increases with the increasing extrusion ratio. The hemolysis test result shows that the hemolysis rate of biodegradable magnesium alloys fabricated with the higher extrusion ratio is 4.8%, when hemolysis rate lower than 5% has been demonstrated safe according to ISO 10993-4. In conclusion, the as-extruded biodegradable Mg-Sn-Zn alloy shows great potential as a novel medical implant material.