Assessment of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of As-cast Magnesium Alloys Reinforced with Organically Extracted Zinc and Calcium

Magnesium (Mg) is commonly used as a biomaterial because of itsbiocompatibility, biodegradation, non-toxicity, and good mechanical properties. Theconventional consideration for selecting Mg alloy elements is based on their corrosionresistance, good hardness, and strength. Therefore, some of the alloying elements thatenable the above properties are zinc, calcium, and aluminum. The future requirement ofbiomaterial involves non-toxicity in addition to the existing properties. The tensilestrength and hardness of polymeric materials used as a replacement for metallicmaterials in biomedical applications were lesser. Therefore, calcium and zinc weresourced organically from cow bones and cocoa seeds, respectively, to eliminate theadverse effect of the inorganic source of the same element. Zinc and calcium werealloyed with magnesium at different percentages recommended by Junjin, 2017experiments (0.23% Zn, 0.15% Ca in alloy 1 and 0.25% Zn, 0.23% Ca in alloy 2). Thehardness, tensile strength, and percentage elongation of the as-cast materials fromorganic alloy sources were investigated and compared to similar experiments from theliterature with the inorganic alloy source. The result showed that Mg alloy with organiczinc and calcium exhibit better hardness (52.1 HRv in alloy 1 and 60.7 HRv in alloy 2),tensile strength (181.3 MPa in alloy 1 and 208.3MPa in alloy 2), and ductility (13.1%elongation in alloy 1 and 18% in alloy 2) compared to Jinjin Mg alloy from aninorganic source of lesser values of mechanical properties. It can be concluded thatzinc and calcium from organic sources is a better replacement for inorganic sources inMg alloy.