P. SALVETR et al.: POROUS MAGNESIUM ALLOYS PREPARED BY POWDER METALLURGY
917–922
POROUS MAGNESIUM ALLOYS PREPARED BY POWDER
METALLURGY
POROZNE MAGNEZIJEVE ZLITINE, IZDELANE S POMO^JO
METALURGIJE PRAHOV
Pavel Salvetr, Pavel Novák, Dalibor Vojtìch
University of Chemistry and Technology, Department of Metals and Corrosion Engineering, Technicka 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic
psalvetr@seznam.cz
Prejem rokopisa – received: 2015-07-14; sprejem za objavo – accepted for publication: 2015-10-30
doi:10.17222/mit.2015.226
This paper deals with the development of porous magnesium alloys that can be used in medicine for bone fixations and
implants. The individual components of the alloys were chosen so that the biodegradability of the material is maintained. The
advantage of these magnesium materials should be an ability to decompose after some time. This should reduce the number of
surgeries and consequently increase the comfort of patients. All the samples were prepared using the method of powder
metallurgy. The influence of particular alloying elements – aluminium, zinc, yttrium – on the structure of the alloys was
explored, with changes being seen in the area of the fraction of pores, the size and the shapes of the pores, according to the
alloying elements and the prolongation of the time of sintering the powders. By altering the chemical composition and the time
of sintering the demanded porosity was not achieved, and that is the reason why a pore-forming agent (ammonium carbonate)
was added. It was removed by thermal decomposition before the powder’s sintering. By adding ammonium carbonate we
managed to increase the porosity and at the same time we obtained more pores (in equivalent diameter 200–400 μm). The
mechanical properties of the samples were tested in compression. In the samples without the pore-forming agent the values of
the ultimate strength were larger than the values of natural bones. After adding the pore-forming agent the ultimate strength and
modulus elasticity were reduced.
Keywords: magnesium alloys, powder metallurgy, porosity, biomaterial
^lanek obravnava razvoj poroznih magnezijevih zlitin, ki bi lahko bile uporabne v medicini za utrjevanje kosti in vsadke. Posa-
mezne komponente zlitin so bile izbrane tako, da je ostal material biolo{ko razgradljiv. Prednost teh magnezijevih materialov
naj bi bila zmo`nost, da se s ~asom razgradi. To naj bi zmanj{alo {tevilo operacij in s tem pove~alo ugodje pacientov. Vsi vzorci
so bili pripravljeni po postoku metalurgije prahov. Preiskovan je bil vpliv posameznih legirnih elementov (aluminij, cink, itrij)
na mikrostrukturo zlitin. Spremembe so bile opa`ene pri dele`u por, velikosti in obliki por glede na legirni element in
podalj{anje ~asa sintranja prahov. S spreminjanjem kemijske sestave in ~asa sintranja zahtevana poroznost ni bila dose`ena in to
je tudi razlog, zakaj je bilo dodano sredstvo za nastajanje por (amonijev karbonat). To sredstvo je bilo odstranjeno s toplotnim
razpadom pred sintranjem prahu. Z dodatkom amonijevega karbonata nam je uspelo pove~ati poroznost in isto~asno smo dobili
ve~ por ekvivalentnega premera 200–400 μm. Mehanske lastnosti vzorcev so bile preizku{ene s stiskanjem. Vzorci brez sredstva
za nastajanje por so dosegli vrednosti poru{ne trdnosti ve~je od vrednosti pri naravnih kosteh. Po dodajanju sredstva za nastanek
por sta se poru{na trdnost in modul elasti~nosti zmanj{ala.
Klju~ne besede: magnezijeve zlitine, metalurgija prahov, poroznost, biomaterial
1 INTRODUCTION
Magnesium and its alloys have an import role among
structural materials. They exceed other materials, espe-
cially with their low density. Magnesium is used mainly
in the construction of vehicles and the aerospace
industry, where it is used in mechanically less-strained
components. These special applications include, for
example, steering wheels, dashboards, seats and gear-
boxes.1 In the future, magnesium is also proposed to be a
material able to store hydrogen.2
Nowadays, magnesium alloys are a subject of inten-
sive research and development for applications in
medicine as an osteosynthetic material. These materials
have the ability to biodegrade, which means to decom-
pose and be absorbed into a human body. The main
advantages of these kinds of implants would be reducing
the number of surgeries. The so far used biomaterials are
based on bio-inert (non-reactive and corrosion-resistant
alloys). The human body may have a problem with
accepting these materials. This group comprises stainless
steel, titanium and cobalt alloys.3 Biodegradable mate-
rials must fulfil many requirements, i.e., they must not
release toxic doses of metallic ions and both the products
of the corrosion reactions and the original biomaterial
must not cause any allergic reaction of the organism.
Therefore, the appropriate corrosion rates should be
reached. The implant must not decompose too early. For
example, a screw fixation of broken bones should work
for 12–16 weeks, as a minimum. During this time the
implant must keep its mechanical properties, which
should be similar to the mechanical properties of natural
bones. This requirement is met by magnesium and its
alloys quite well, as you can see in Table 1.4,5,7–10 Zinc
alloys are investigated as competitive materials for bio-
degradable implants.6
Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 50 (2016) 6, 917–922 917
UDK 676.017.62:669.721.5:621.763 ISSN 1580-2949
Original scientific article/Izvirni znanstveni ~lanek MTAEC9, 50(6)917(2016)
Table 1: Mechanical properties of porous biomaterials
Tabela 1: Mehanske lastnosti poroznih biomaterialov
Material Porosity(x/%)
Pore
size
(ìm)
Compressive
strength
(MPa)
Modulus
(GPa)
Refe-
rence
Porous Mg 29–31 250–500 20–70 – 7
Porous Mg 36–55 200–400 15–31 4–18 8
Porous Mg 35–55 100–400 12–17 1–2 9
Porous Ti 78 200–500 35 5 10
Porous HA 50–77 200–400 1–17 0.1–7 8
Natural bone – – 2–180 0.1–20 8
Magnesium alloys mostly have better mechanical
properties than pure magnesium. Corrosion resistance is
increased by aluminium, zinc and rare-earth metals, but
alloying elements such as iron, nickel and copper make it
worse. All alloying elements in biodegradable materials
must maintain the biocompatibility of the alloy. The
improvement of the mechanical properties happens
especially by precipitation hardening or by strengthening
of a solid solution. An element that can be used is zinc,
which naturally occurs in body tissue. The results of
biochemical and histological investigations show that the
degradation of the Mg-Zn alloy should not harm the
organism.5 The maximum solubility of zinc in magne-
sium is 6.2 % of mass fractions, and it improves the
corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. The
influence of aluminium on magnesium alloys is similar:
it increases the strength and corrosion resistance. In a
magnesium solid solution there is dissolved a maximum
of 12.7 % of mass fractions of aluminium. Magnesium
alloys with aluminium are heat treatable to form the
Mg17Al12 phase. Alloying with aluminium causes
microporosity and according to some studies it can cause
Alzheimer’s disease. Other alloying elements that
influence the mechanical corrosion properties in a posi-
tive way are rare-earth metals – the lanthanides, yttrium
and scandium. To magnesium alloys they are usually
added in relatively small amounts, where one or two ele-
ments are dominant and the rest is added only in a small
amount. The rare-earth metals can be divided into a
group with better solubility (Y, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm,
Yb, Lu) and another group with limited solubility.
Together with magnesium they create a eutectic system
with limited solubility. Intermetallic phases (Mg2Y,
Mg24Y5) limit the movement of dislocations and increase
the ultimate tensile strength.11 Lanthanum and cerium
could be added in a limited amount according to a bio-
logical test.12 Calcium and zirconium also have a positive
influence on the mechanical properties. Zirconium re-
fines the structure, while calcium hardens the magne-
sium-based solid solution and forms the Mg2Ca phase.
Calcium is the main component of bones and in combi-
nation with magnesium it improves their healing.13,14
To ensure the osseointegration of the implant and the
consequent substitution of the implant by the bone, the
presence of pores with an average of 150–200 μm as a
minimum is important.15 The porous structure can be
produced with various processes. For sample preparation
by powder metallurgy a pore.-forming agent (carbamide,
ammonium bicarbonate) is added, which is removed by
thermal decomposition.8,16 With this process, pores with
a random distribution and size are formed. Regular
ordering of the pores is achieved by low-pressure casting
of the magnesium alloy into a NaCl template.17 This
paper aims to prove the possibility of preparing porous
magnesium alloys by sintering from elemental metallic
powders with the addition of a pore-forming agent.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PART
All the samples were prepared by the method of
powder metallurgy from Mg, Zn, and Y powders. The
powders were blended manually and uniaxially pressed
at a pressure of 530 MPa to form cylindrical green com-
pacts. The samples were sintered in a tubular furnace
under an argon atmosphere. The sintering temperature
was chosen according to the phase diagrams of the indi-
vidual alloys (MgZn5: 575 °C, MgZn10: 405 °C, MgY5:
600 °C). The duration of the sintering was 2 h. For the
MgZn5 and MgZn10 samples, the sintering was pro-
longed up to 4 h or 24 h in order to observe the influence
of the sintering time on the porosity and mechanical pro-
perties. The pore-forming agent (NH4)2CO3, which was
used in some samples, was removed before sintering by
thermal decomposition. The decomposition was carried
out at 230 °C for 1 h and the products of the decom-
position were drained by a flow of argon. Subsequent
sintering was conducted at the same temperature as for
the samples without the addition of the pore-forming
agent for 4 h.
To determine the porosity and to observe the micro-
structure, metallographic samples were prepared. The
samples were mounted into methacrylate resin, ground
by sandpapers P180–P4000 (abrasive elements SiC and
Al2O3), polished by a water-based suspension of Al2O3
(Topol 2) or diamond paste D2. The microstructure of
the samples was revealed by etching in Nital (2 mL
HNO3 + 98 mL ethanol).
The microstructure was observed with an optical
metallographic microscope (Olympus PME3) and docu-
mented by AxioVision image-processing software. A
more detailed observation and chemical microanalysis
were performed with a TESCAN VEGA 3 LMU scann-
ing electron microscope equipped with an OXFORD
Instruments INCA 350 EDS analyser.
Macrographs for the measurement of porosity were
acquired with a Carl Zeiss Neophot 2 optical metallo-
graphic microscope. The porosity was evaluated with
Lucia 4.8 image-analysis software as the area fraction of
pores in the cross-section.
The mechanical properties of the samples were tested
in compression at room temperature. The ultimate com-
pressive strength (UCS) and modulus of elasticity E were
determined from the stress-strain curves. The measure-
P. SALVETR et al.: POROUS MAGNESIUM ALLOYS PREPARED BY POWDER METALLURGY
918 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 50 (2016) 6, 917–922
ments of the mechanical properties were performed
using a LabTest 5.250SP1-VM universal testing ma-
chine.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the first part of the work, the alloys were prepared
by sintering mixtures of the corresponding elemental
powders without the addition of the pore-forming agent.
The purpose of this step was to find an alloy that can be
produced using this simple production route.
3.1 MgZn
In the case of the Mg-Zn alloy, the influence of the
sintering duration and the amount of zinc on the
structure and porosity of the samples were observed. A
longer duration of sintering did not cause any changes to
the microstructure of the MgZn5 alloy. The effect of a
longer sintering time is a decreasing number of pores
with an equivalent diameter of about 30 μm and, conse-
quently, to a better-quality sintering of the powder.
However, the decrease of the fractional area of the pores
is not reached in a sample sintered for 24 h. The
microstructure of the alloy MgZn5 (Figure 1) consists of
a solid solution of Mg-Zn with a zinc content of 4 % of
the mass fractions, whose grain boundaries are decorated
by the intermetallic phase. This phase arises only in a
thin layer and therefore its chemical composition was not
determined by chemical microanalysis.
Increasing the content of zinc in the alloy up to 10 %
of mass fractions (MgZn10) led to an increasing number
of pores with a equivalent diameter up to 100 μm, but the
overall porosity decreased. Prolongation of the sintering
duration from 2 to 4 h slightly decreased the porosity.
The porosity of the alloys is written in Table 2. In the
structure of the sample MgZn10 there are two phases: a
Mg-Zn solid solution with a zinc content of 8.6 % of
mass fractions (Mg) and the phase MgZn (or Mg7Zn3)
with a zinc content of approximately 45 % of mass
fractions. The microstructure of the MgZn10 alloy is
shown in Figure 2.
Table 2: Porosity of prepared materials
Tabela 2: Poroznost pripravljenih materialov
Alloy Area fractionpores (%)
MgZn5-2h 8
MgZn5-4h 8
MgZn5-24h 10
MgZn10-2h 6
MgZn10-4h 6
MgAl5 2
MgAl3Zn1 5
MgY5 3
MgZn5+10 % of mass fractions of
(NH4)2CO3
30
MgZn5+20 % of mass fractions of
(NH4)2CO3
42
MgZn5+30 % of mass fractions of
(NH4)2CO3
48
MgAl3Zn1+20 % of mass fractions of
(NH4)2CO3
18
3.2. MgAl5
The lowest porosity and pore size were determined in
the alloy with 5 % of mass fractions Al. All the pores
had an equivalent diameter up to 200 μm, 94 % of them
were smaller than 100 μm. The structure is formed by
the Mg-Al solid solution with an Al content of 5 % of
mass fractions. At the grain boundaries, the content in-
creases, which may be caused by the presence of a eutec-
tic phase consisting of a Mg-based solid solution and the
Mg17Al12 phase. The microstructure of the alloy is shown
in Figure 3.
P. SALVETR et al.: POROUS MAGNESIUM ALLOYS PREPARED BY POWDER METALLURGY
Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 50 (2016) 6, 917–922 919
Figure 2: Microstructure of MgZn10 alloy
Slika 2: Mikrostruktura zlitine MgZn10
Figure 1: Microstructure of MgZn5 alloy
Slika 1: Mikrostruktura zlitine MgZn5
3.3 MgAl3Zn1
In the microstructure of the MgAl3Zn1 (AZ31) alloy,
there are a large number of small pores, whose amount is
similar to the alloy MgZn10. The sample consists of a
solid solution of alloying elements in magnesium. The
microstructure of the alloy is presented in Figure 4, the
darker parts (Mg1 = 96.5 % of mass fractions of Mg, 2.5
% of mass fractions of Al, 1 % of mass fractions of Zn)
have a lower content of Al, in contrast to the lighter parts
(Mg2 = 95 % of mass fractions of Mg, 4 % of mass frac-
tions of Al, 1 % of mass fractions of Zn), zinc is dis-
persed homogeneously in the alloy.
3.4 MgY5
The porosity of the alloy alloyed with yttrium is
3.1 %. From all the investigated samples, this alloy con-
tains the largest amount of micropores, whose equivalent
diameter is not greater than 10 μm. These small pores
were probably caused by the low diffusion coefficient of
yttrium in magnesium. During sintering the mutual
diffusion was suppressed and in the structure there were
maintained the rest of the pores after pressing. In the
SEM micrograph (Figure 5) it is obvious that particles
of yttrium are not dissolved in magnesium and the solid
solution is not formed.
With the addition of a pore-forming agent, the alloys
MgZn5 (10, 20 and 30 % of mass fractions of ammo-
nium carbonate) and MgAl3Zn1 (20 % of mass fractions
of ammonium carbonate) were formed. With an in-
creasing content of the pore-forming agent, the porosity
of the alloy MgZn5 increased. In the structure of the
alloy MgAl3Zn1+20 % mass fractions of (NH4)2CO3
there was a lower porosity than in the alloy MgZn5 with
the same content of the pore-forming agent (Table 2). In
Figure 6 there are pores with the required size (equiva-
P. SALVETR et al.: POROUS MAGNESIUM ALLOYS PREPARED BY POWDER METALLURGY
920 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 50 (2016) 6, 917–922
Figure 5: Microstructure of MgY5 alloy
Slika 5: Mikrostruktura zlitine MgY5
Figure 3: Microstructure of MgAl5 alloy
Slika 3: Mikrostruktura zlitine MgAl5
Figure 4: Microstructure of MgAl3Zn1 alloy
Slika 4: Mikrostruktura zlitine MgAl3Zn1
Figure 6: Microstructure of MgZn5 alloy with addition of 20 % of
mass fractions of (NH4)2CO3
Slika 6: Mikrostruktura zlitine MgZn5 z dodatkom 20 % masnega
dele`a (NH4)CO3
lent diameter of more than 200–500 μm), which origi-
nated from the thermal decomposition of (NH4)2CO3. In
Figure 6 there are some cracks that may have been
caused by the stress during the decomposition of the
pore-forming agent.
In the samples without the pore-forming agent it was
found that 85–95 % of the pores do not reach the
required equivalent diameter of at least 100 μm (in the
alloy MgY5, as many as 99 % of the pores). By adding
the pore-forming agent the number of pores greater than
100 μm increased. In Figure 7, the influence of the
pore-forming agent on the size of the pores in the alloy
MgAl3Zn1 is presented. The most circular pores (69 %)
are contained in the structure of the MgAl3Zn1 alloy. In
the other alloys the amount of circular pores is 45–60 %.
Adding the pore-forming agent into the alloy MgAl3Zn1
decreased the quotient of the circular pores to 35 %.
The ultimate compressive strengths of the alloys are
higher in comparison with the properties of natural bone
(Table 1). The ultimate compressive strength is between
203 MPa and 236 MPa. The modulus of elasticity is
comparable with natural bone. A slightly lower modulus
of elasticity was found in the case of the MgAl3Zn1
alloy, in contrast with the other alloys. Increased porosity
and the presence of large pores cause a significant
decrease in the mechanical properties. The results of the
compression test (UCS, E) are shown in Figure 8.
4 CONCLUSION
Magnesium alloys prepared by powder metallurgy
without a pore-forming agent have an adequate modulus
of elasticity and a higher ultimate compressive strength
than natural bones. In the microstructure of magnesium
alloys alloyed with zinc and aluminium, the solid solu-
tion dominates. An exception is the microstructure of the
alloy MgY5, where the particles of yttrium did not
dissolve in magnesium. The porosity of the samples
without the pore-forming agent is up to 10 % of the
volume fractions. Approximately 90 % of pores have an
equivalent diameter of less than 100 μm. The addition of
the pore-forming agent – (NH4)2CO3 – to the alloys
MgZn5 and MgAl3Zn1, increases the quantity of pores
with an equivalent diameter of 200 μm and an area
fraction of pores to 18–48 % of the volume fractions.
The ultimate compressive strength reached 203–236
MPa. With an increasing porosity after adding the
(NH4)2CO3 it decreases to 61 MPa.
Acknowledgement
This research was financially supported by Czech
Science Foundation, project No. P108/12/G043.
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922 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 50 (2016) 6, 917–922