Magnesium, Magnesium Once Again and Titanium

This year experts have received 177 applications for a grant from 18 universities, scientific organizations and large industrial enterprises located in the Samara Region. One hundred applicants have been recognized as the winners of the competition, and six of them are from Togliatti State University.

Five projects are directly related to the development of magnesium alloys. Within the framework of the TSU development program until 2030 – the university is among the winners of the Priority-2030 State Support Program of universities – magnesium is one of the key scientific themes. Research on this theme is being done by the university within the Engineering of the Future – the world-class scientific and educational center – in the New Materials scientific field. To deliver the magnesium projects successfully, TSU has initiated and created the New Technologies for Magnesium Alloys consortium that incorporates the Solikamsk Metallurgical Plant, two research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and medical universities.

Evgeny Merson, Senior Researcher at the TSU R&D Institute of Advanced Technologies, and Pavel Myagkyh, Junior Researcher, are developing bioresorbable magnesium alloys that can provide enhanced corrosion resistance. The rate of corrosion should be controlled by metal biocompatible coatings which are the subject of the project by Alyona Denisova, TSU R&D Institute engineer and Junior Researcher. Vitaly Poluyanov, Junior Researcher, is developing a set of measures to prevent corrosion cracking of magnesium alloys. Alisa Polunina, TSU R&D Institute postgraduate student and researcher, is applying microarc oxidation to improve the wear and corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys for technical and biomedical purposes.

– Our colleagues often declare that the 21st century is the Magnesium Age because new magnesium alloys are being actively developed as they are very lightweight and at the same time durable, – says Alisa Polunina. – However, these alloys still remain soft and cannot resist wear, and they also “rust” strongly and quickly under adverse conditions. Thus, our task and the essence of the project is to learn how to produce protective ceramic "coatings" on the surface of magnesium alloys so that the material does not "rust" and can resist wear. This is very important for a number of aviation and aerospace challenges where each gram counts. And this is also extremely important for medicine: special (bioresorbable) magnesium alloys are required for treatment of fractures, stenting and other purposes. It is crucial that such alloys dissolve in a human body at a certain rate – first they help, and then dissolve – and they do not have to be removed by operation as it happens with titanium alloys. I hope our “coatings” will be helpful in controlling the dissolution rate and osteosynthesis for such purposes.

Alisa Polunina is planning to use the grant to purchase some specific materials like reagents and electrochemical accessories that are extremely difficult to acquire.

Yuri Khokhlov, head of the laboratory at the TSU Welding, Pressure Shaping and Related Processes Department, who has won the competition for the fifth time, has similar plans. He would like to stock up on niobium and zirconium to investigate the effect of alloying alitated coatings on titanium heat resistance.

– We have not been dealing with titanium alliteration that long but the project will result in a new coating which primarily increases the heat resistance of titanium. From the market perspective, this will make it possible to replace expensive titanium alloys and steel parts in the structures used in aerospace, automotive, defense industries and operated at high temperatures. Let’s take, for example, steel compressor blades of gas turbine engines where the weight reduction can be up to 15-20 %, – says Yuri Khokhlov.

Every winner will get a one-time grant of 120,000 Rubles.

– I would like to express my gratitude to the government of Samara Region for the regular competitions and support provided to young scientists in our region, – said Evgeny Merson, Senior Researcher at TSU R&D Institute of Advanced Technologies.