ABSTRACT
In recent years, several attempts to improve the corrosion and mechanical performances of magnesium and its alloys have been made, from the development of high-pure magnesium to the addition of alloying elements and the application of thermo-mechanical processes. In this chapter, the most investigated magnesium alloys for biomedical applications (i.e., high-pure and ultra-high-pure Mg, Al-based Mg alloys, Zn-based Mg alloys, Ca-based alloys and rare earth-based Mg alloys) are discussed in terms of their mechanical properties (i.e., tensile and compressive yield and ultimate strength, tensile elongation to failure), corrosion behavior (i.e., E cor and i cor and corrosion rates) and biotoxicity (i.e., cell viability and hemolysis rate). For each material, the optimum range of alloying element concentration is reported regarding the optimization of corrosion, mechanical and biological performances, together with a review of the effect of the main thermo-mechanical processes and severe plastic deformation techniques applied to these materials. Data from more than 1000 references are collected, resulting in an extensive and complete review of the state of the art.
