Comparative study of corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys in chloride environment

This study set out to compare the corrosion resistance of several types of magnesium-based materials in order to select the most appropriate solution for parts that are to be used in aggressive chloride environments. To this aim, the study focused on the investigation of WE43, ZE21 and AZ31 alloys, with pure Mg used as a reference. The corrosion stability of these materials was determined by performing potentiodynamic polarization (PD) tests and long-term immersion tests, accompanied by pH testing and weight loss measurements. Additionally, samples were subjected to photo-documentation at specific exposure times. The experimental results indicated that, despite the WE43 Mg alloy exhibiting inferior corrosion resistance during short-term exposure, it demonstrated the highest corrosion resistance when evaluating long-term corrosion stability.