Recent Progress in Corrosion and Protection of Magnesium Alloys

Abstract

Magnesium alloys are advanced light structural and functional materials being increasingly used in the automotive, aerospace, electronic, and energy industries. However, their corrosion performance at the current stage of development is still not good enough for increasingly diverse practical applications. The Cooperative Research Centre for Cast Metals Manufacturing (CAST) in Australia is one of the most active research organizations in the world established to cope with the problems associated with the development and application of advanced light metals. Corrosion and prevention of magnesium and its alloys is an important part of CAST's research program. This paper presents a brief summary of recent research achievements by CAST and relevant research work in this area in the world. This overview covers “anodic hydrogen evolution”, estimation of corrosion rate, corrosion of aluminum‐ and non‐aluminum‐containing magnesium alloys, influences of composition and microstructure on corrosion, corrosion of a die‐cast magnesium alloy, galvanic corrosion, coolant corrosion, and an aluminum‐alloyed coating. The aim of this overview is to deepen the current understanding of corrosion and protection of magnesium and its alloys and to provide a base for future research work in this field.

The Effect of Pre‐Processing and Grain Structure on the Bio‐Corrosion and Fatigue Resistance of Magnesium Alloy AZ31

“…In fact, magnesium alloys normally suffer from nonuniform corrosion attack. [1] Many factors can cause pitting corrosion damage of magnesium alloys, such as the non-uniformly formed corrosion product film, the micro-galvanic effect of impurity particles and secondary phases within the matrix phase as well as non-uniformity of alloy composition. Previous studies [12] showed that under dynamic conditions, the protective film was not stable, and uniform corrosion at a much higher rate was observed for high solution flow rates.…”

“…The poor corrosion resistance of magnesium and magnesium alloys is regarded as a major drawback, and significant effort has been focused on improving this. [1][2][3] However, the high reactivity of magnesium alloys in corrosive media can be used to advantage in biomedical applications, particularly in temporary implants where the capacity of a material for bio-degradation is one of the most sought after properties. Indeed, permanent implant materials, such as stainless steel, titanium alloys or Nitinol (55Ni-45Ti), are the only choices currently available for hard tissue implantation.…”

The Effects of Hydroxyapatite Addition on the Properties of the Mechanically Alloyed and Sintered Mg-RE-Zr Alloy

“…The poor corrosion resistance depends on: (1) impurities and/or secondary phases and (2) the quality of the oxide films on the Mg surface ( Ref 3,9,10).…”

Microstructure, mechanical properties, corrosion behavior and hemolysis of as-extruded biodegradable Mg-Sn-Zn alloy

“…Also, zinc is one of themost abundant nutritionally essential elements in the human body and released Zn ions can be easily absorbed [20,21]. Usually, the addition of zirconium can obviously refine the grains of magnesium alloys and thereby contributes to the strength and corrosion resistance of the alloys [22][23][24].…”