User:DrJakeC/sandbox

Ca-Mg-Zn (or Ca-based) metallic glass is a type of amorphous metal. Similar to the Mg-Zn-Ca metallic glass, Ca-Mg-Zn is also a bioabsorbable metallic glass. These two types of metallic glasses are both based on the Mg-Zn-Ca ternary alloy system. The elements are displayed in order of decreasing atomic concentration. Hence, the distinction between these two types of metallic glasses lies in their most dominant element.

History

 * 1) REDIRECT Amorphous metal

Ternary Ca-Mg-Zn bulk metallic glasses were first discovered in 2005. These bulk glassy alloys had compositions of Ca55Mg15+XZn30-X, Ca60Mg10+YZn30-Y, and Ca55+ZMg25-ZZn20, where X = 0, 5 and 10; Y = 0, 5, 7.5, 10, and 15; and Z = 0, 5, 7.5, 10, and 15.

Later, in 2012, unique compositions of Ca-Mg-Zn with higher Zn contents were synthesized by Cao et al.. The tailored compositions were aimed at improving their (i) corrosion resistance and (ii) thermal stability for thermoplastic processing over previously reported Ca-based BMG.

Properties
Amorphous Ca65Zn20Mg15 alloy exhibits extremely poor corrosion resistance. Wang et al. reported that the said amorphous alloy completely disintegrated after no more than 3 h exposure in biocorrosion environment. In static distilled water at room temperature, Dahlman et al. also reported destructive corrosion reactions of the same material, decomposing into a multiphase powder.

Ca-BMGs with higher Zn contents as reported by Cao et al. showed an elastic modulus in the range of 35–46 GPa, and a hardness of 0.7–1.4 GPa.

Recent Development
Ca-Mg-Zn metallic glasses only consist of the elements Ca, Mg and Zn, which already exist inside the human body. As such, it is being explored as a potential candidate as a bioresorbable material for orthopaedic applications.