An additively manufactured magnesium-aluminium alloy withstands seawater corrosion

Zhuoran Zeng; Sanjay Choudhary; Marco Esmaily; Felix Benn; Thomas Derra; Yvonne Hora; Alexander Kopp; Antoine Allanore; Nick Birbilis

doi:10.1038/s41529-022-00241-5

An additively manufactured magnesium-aluminium alloy withstands seawater corrosion

Zhuoran Zeng^*, Sanjay Choudhary, Marco Esmaily, Felix Benn, Thomas Derra, Yvonne Hora, Alexander Kopp, Antoine Allanore, Nick Birbilis^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Magnesium, the lightest structural metal, has inherently poor corrosion resistance. In this study, we developed a magnesium-aluminium Mg-10.6Al-0.6Zn-0.3Mn alloy, additively manufactured by laser powder bed fusion. We reveal that this alloy has a record low degradation rate amongst all magnesium alloys in practically relevant corrosive solutions, and it even withstands seawater corrosion. As tested by a number of methods, the alloy shows even more enhanced passivation with longer immersion periods. The alloy surface following immersion maintained a nearly corrosion-free appearance and was determined to have a thin aluminium-containing surface film, due to surface enrichment of aluminium from the supersaturated matrix. Aluminium enrichment near the sample surface was also observed when the sample is immersed in phosphoric acid or exposed to atmosphere at room temperature. This study demonstrates the prospects for additively manufactured ultra-lightweight magnesium structure with outstanding corrosion resistance.

Original language	English
Article number	32
Journal	npj Materials Degradation
Volume	6
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-022-00241-5
Publication status	Published - Dec 2022

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title = "An additively manufactured magnesium-aluminium alloy withstands seawater corrosion",

abstract = "Magnesium, the lightest structural metal, has inherently poor corrosion resistance. In this study, we developed a magnesium-aluminium Mg-10.6Al-0.6Zn-0.3Mn alloy, additively manufactured by laser powder bed fusion. We reveal that this alloy has a record low degradation rate amongst all magnesium alloys in practically relevant corrosive solutions, and it even withstands seawater corrosion. As tested by a number of methods, the alloy shows even more enhanced passivation with longer immersion periods. The alloy surface following immersion maintained a nearly corrosion-free appearance and was determined to have a thin aluminium-containing surface film, due to surface enrichment of aluminium from the supersaturated matrix. Aluminium enrichment near the sample surface was also observed when the sample is immersed in phosphoric acid or exposed to atmosphere at room temperature. This study demonstrates the prospects for additively manufactured ultra-lightweight magnesium structure with outstanding corrosion resistance.",

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AU - Zeng, Zhuoran

AU - Choudhary, Sanjay

AU - Esmaily, Marco

AU - Benn, Felix

AU - Derra, Thomas

AU - Hora, Yvonne

AU - Kopp, Alexander

AU - Allanore, Antoine

AU - Birbilis, Nick

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - Magnesium, the lightest structural metal, has inherently poor corrosion resistance. In this study, we developed a magnesium-aluminium Mg-10.6Al-0.6Zn-0.3Mn alloy, additively manufactured by laser powder bed fusion. We reveal that this alloy has a record low degradation rate amongst all magnesium alloys in practically relevant corrosive solutions, and it even withstands seawater corrosion. As tested by a number of methods, the alloy shows even more enhanced passivation with longer immersion periods. The alloy surface following immersion maintained a nearly corrosion-free appearance and was determined to have a thin aluminium-containing surface film, due to surface enrichment of aluminium from the supersaturated matrix. Aluminium enrichment near the sample surface was also observed when the sample is immersed in phosphoric acid or exposed to atmosphere at room temperature. This study demonstrates the prospects for additively manufactured ultra-lightweight magnesium structure with outstanding corrosion resistance.

AB - Magnesium, the lightest structural metal, has inherently poor corrosion resistance. In this study, we developed a magnesium-aluminium Mg-10.6Al-0.6Zn-0.3Mn alloy, additively manufactured by laser powder bed fusion. We reveal that this alloy has a record low degradation rate amongst all magnesium alloys in practically relevant corrosive solutions, and it even withstands seawater corrosion. As tested by a number of methods, the alloy shows even more enhanced passivation with longer immersion periods. The alloy surface following immersion maintained a nearly corrosion-free appearance and was determined to have a thin aluminium-containing surface film, due to surface enrichment of aluminium from the supersaturated matrix. Aluminium enrichment near the sample surface was also observed when the sample is immersed in phosphoric acid or exposed to atmosphere at room temperature. This study demonstrates the prospects for additively manufactured ultra-lightweight magnesium structure with outstanding corrosion resistance.

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An additively manufactured magnesium-aluminium alloy withstands seawater corrosion

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