Abstract
Effects of different rare earth elements on the degradation and mechanical properties of the ECAP (equal channel angular pressing) extruded Mg alloys were investigated in this work. Microstructural characterization, thermodynamic calculation, a tensile test, an electrochemical test, an immersion test, a hydrogen evolution test and a cytotoxicity test were carried out. The results showed that yttrium addition was beneficial to the improvement of the alloy’s strength, and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) values of the ECAPed Mg-2Zn-0.5Y-0.5Zr alloy reached 315 MPa and 295 MPa, respectively. In addition, Nd was beneficial to the corrosion resistance, for which, the corrosion rate of the ECAPed Mg-2Zn-0.5Nd-0.5Zr alloy was observed to be 0.42 ± 0.04 mm/year in Hank’s solution after 14 days of immersion. Gd was moderate in improving both the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. Moreover, after co-culturing with murine calvarial preosteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) cells, the ECAPed Mg-2Zn-0.5RE (Nd, Gd, Y)-0.5Zr alloys exhibited good cytocompatibility with a grade 1 cytotoxicity. Consequently, the ECAPed Mg-2Zn-0.5Nd-0.5Zr alloy showed the best application prospect in the field of orthopedics.
Highlights
Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys as biodegradable implants continue to gain prominence in the clinics because they have shown a promising application prospect in the biomedical field
For the as-cast Mg-2Zn-xRE-0.5Zr alloys, there were some second phases distributed along the grain boundaries, especially in the Mg-2Zn-0.5Y-0.5Zr alloys
For the Mg-2Zn-0.5Gd-0.5Zr alloy, the second phases were mainly distributed along the grain boundaries with the formation of a network structure
Summary
Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys as biodegradable implants continue to gain prominence in the clinics because they have shown a promising application prospect in the biomedical field. Rare earth (RE) elements, such as Gd, Nd and Y, are widely added into Mg alloys to enhance their inherent properties [5]. They exhibit excellent strengthening effects and degradation resistance. They represent the different kinds of RE-containing Mg alloys with different solubilities These three different elements were chosen in this study. Few studies that detail the different roles of the three elements in the degradation and mechanical properties of the wrought Mg alloys are available. The effects of the three rare earth elements on the degradation and mechanical properties of the ECAP extruded Mg alloys were studied in this work
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