Effect of galvanostatic anodic polarization on hydrogen evolution rate and residual fatigue strength of Mg alloys for implant use

Abstract

For surgery, biodegradable magnesium alloys are considered promising candidates. The low corrosion resistance is advantageous since the implant is degraded in the presence of aqueous body fluids, supporting the human bone for a defined time and be fully degraded after this functional phase, making a second surgery for implant removal unnecessary. To design this phase and prevent early implant failure, precise knowledge of the degradation behavior over months and the correlating mechanical stability is essential. In vitro tests of the required duration are associated with enormous time and cost efforts. Therefore, a short-time method is developed to accelerate the degradation progress by anodic polarization without affecting the corrosion mechanism. The method is based on the corrosion behavior of Mg alloys under polarization, accompanied by increasing hydrogen evolution for increasing current densities, allowing conclusions to be drawn about the corrosion rate. Three-week immersion tests of the alloy WE43 with and without plasma electrolytic oxidation are the starting point. The time-dependent corrosion rates are to be reproduced by applying anodic polarization within three days. An experimentally determined relationship between current density and corrosion rate is used to design the polarization. The corrosion morphology of both testing strategies is analyzed by µCT. To evaluate the influence of the morphology on the mechanical stability, ex situ multiple amplitude tests are performed, allowing an estimation of the residual fatigue strength. The results show that a qualitative simulation of the hydrogen evolution rate is possible by applying polarization, achieving an enormous time saving. Due to a changed corrosion morphology with increased pitting tendency and the associated reduced residual fatigue strength, the method has to be considered as a worst-case evaluation allowing to exclude unsuitable Mg-based biomaterials right from the beginning, in particular before further preclinical studies.