The attraction of a lightweight metal with mechanical properties suitable for many applications brought a renewed focus on magnesium alloys in the automotive and aerospace industries.

摘要

More than 200 years after the first production of elemental magnesium by Sir Humphrey Davy, the past decade has witnessed increased attention to magnesium-based alloys by biomaterial scientists and medical device developers. Surprisingly, the concept of using magnesium as an implantable material is relatively old. In the early part of the twentieth century magnesium was investigated extensively for several medical applications, but with the advent and adoption of stainless steels as metallic implants this interest waned in the post-World War II period to little, if any, research. The attraction of a lightweight metal with mechanical properties suitable for many applications brought a renewed focus on magnesium alloys in the automotive and aerospace industries. This interest spread to the current, rapidly growing interest in magnesium-based alloys for medical applications. In the words of the author of Ecclesiastes, "there is nothing new under the sun".