The Biocorrosion of a Rare Earth Magnesium Alloy in Artificial Seawater Containing Chlorella vulgaris

TL;DR

This paper studies how a marine microalga affects the corrosion of a magnesium alloy used in medical and marine applications.

Contribution

The study reveals a novel biocorrosion mechanism of a rare earth magnesium alloy influenced by Chlorella vulgaris in seawater.

Findings

Low concentrations of Chlorella vulgaris accelerate biomineralization, forming a protective CaCO3 layer on the alloy.

High concentrations of Chlorella vulgaris produce organic acids that cause localized corrosion but also form protective biomineralized films.

The study explains contradictory biocorrosion behaviors through a proposed mechanism involving organic acids and biomineralization.

Abstract

In the medical field, magnesium (Mg) alloys have been widely used due to their excellent antibacterial properties and biodegradability. However, in the marine environment, the antibacterial effect may be greatly attenuated, and consequently, microorganisms in the ocean are likely to adhere to the surface of Mg alloys, resulting in biocorrosion damage, which is really troublesome in the maritime industry and can even be disastrous to the navy. Currently, there is a lack of research on the biocorrosion of Mg alloys that may find important applications in marine engineering. In this paper, the biocorrosion mechanism of the Mg alloy Mg-3Nd-2Gd-Zn-Zr caused by Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris), a typical marine microalga, was studied. The results showed that the biomineralization process in the artificial seawater containing a low concentration of C. vulgaris cells was accelerated compared with that in the abiotic artificial seawater, leading to the deposition of CaCO3 on the surface to inhibit the localized corrosion of the Mg alloy, whereas a high concentration of C. vulgaris cells produced a high content of organic acids at some sites through photosynthesis to significantly accelerate the surface film rupture at some sites and severe localized corrosion there, but meanwhile, it resulted in the formation of a more protective biomineralized film in the other areas to greatly alleviate the corrosion. The contradictory biocorrosion behaviors on the Mg-3Nd-2Gd-Zn-Zr alloy induced by C. vulgaris were finally explained by a mechanism proposed in the paper.

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