Development of magnesium alloys for biomedical applications: structure, process to property relationship

Magnesium alloys as biodegradable materials have been used in clinic for coronary stents and bone screws, however the low mechanical properties and fast degradation behaviour still limit their application, which attracted many researches to resolve them. In this review, the development of alloying and plastic deformation to control the composition and microstructure of the alloys and improve the mechanical property and degradation behaviour is introduced. Since the biocompatibility and biodegradation must be considered for the design of new biodegradable magnesium alloys, so the possibility to improve the mechanical properties is much restricted. Higher mechanical properties of magnesium alloys are expected to be reached by more attention on combination of new alloy design, heat treatment and plastic deformation techniques. The development of corrosion resistant magnesium alloys still needs much more studies including the corrosion resistant mechanisms fundamental researches.