Electrochemical corrosion behavior of a magnesium calcium alloy in simulated body fluids with different glucose concentrations

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of glucose concentration on the electrochemical corrosion behavior of a magnesium calcium alloy in Hanks’ simulated body fluid (SBF) using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) methods. The results indicate that the corrosion potential of magnesium calcium alloy decreased slightly from −1.34V to −1.49V with increasing the glucose concentration from 0.7g/L to 1.6g/L. Comparatively, the corrosion current density decreased from 2.038mA/cm2 to 0.031mA/cm2, indicating that the corrosion rate was inhibited effectively by a high glucose concentration. Crevice corrosion was found to be a dominant corrosion mode under all investigated glucose concentrations. In addition, wet peening treatment was proved to be a promising method to improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium calcium alloy. The corrosion rates were decreased by over 60% using wet peening treatment. The research provides a fundamental understanding of the corrosion behavior and associated corrosion mechanism of magnesium calcium alloy within different body fluid environments.