LAUSR

Abstract The corrosion behavior of Mg-Zn-Ca amorphous alloys in simulated body fluid is of academic and engineering interests since they are potential biomaterials. The influence of the crystallized structure of the Mg67Zn28Ca5 amorphous alloy on the corrosion behavior in simulated body fluid (SBF) is investigated. The different crystallized structures were obtained by heating the amorphous sample to temperatures of 100 °C~300 °C. The results reveal that the amorphous Mg67Zn28Ca5 alloy shows better corrosion resistance in SBF than partially crystallized samples, and homogeneous chemical corrosion occurs on the surface of the amorphous alloy. In contrast, inhomogeneous galvanic corrosion occurs on the surfaces of the partially crystallized Mg67Zn28Ca5 sample; and the corroded surface becomes more rugged with increasing the crystallized temperature. The corrosion rate (Vcorr) of the Mg67Zn28Ca5 amorphous alloy in SBF shows a nearly linear relation with the crystallized volume fraction (CVF), i.e., Vcorr= −8.38+96.23CVF, indicating that its corrosion behavior is readily tuned by crystallization.