Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Chemistry and Physics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matchemphys Effect of Au addition on the corrosion activity of Ca-Mg-Zn bulk metallic glasses in Ringer's solution Rafał Babilas a,∗ , Anna Bajorek b , Patryk Włodarczyk c , Wojciech Łoński a , Dawid Szyba a , Dorota Babilas d a Institute of Engineering Materials and Biomaterials, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 18a St., 44-100, Gliwice, Poland b A. Chelkowski Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, Uniwersytecka 4 St., 40-007, Katowice, Poland c Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals, Sowińskiego 5, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland d Department of Inorganic, Analytical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Silesian University of Technology, B. Krzywoustego Street 6, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland HIGHLIGHTS • New alloying systems for Ca-based bulk metallic glasses were proposed. • Influence of Au on the corrosion of Ca-Mg-Zn alloys was studied in Ringer's solution. • The lowest value of the hydrogen volume was observed for Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 34 Au 3 glass. • Au addition moves the corrosion potential toward more positive value. ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Ca-based bulk metallic glasses Corrosion XPS ICP-AES Hydrogen evaluation ABSTRACT New compositions of Ca-based metallic glasses were studied in aim to reduce their rapid degradation in phy- siological body fluids. The studies were performed on Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 35-x Au x (x = 0,1,3 at.%) samples in the form of plates. The effect of Au addition on the corrosion behavior of new Ca-based alloys in Ringer's solution was reported. It was found that the Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 34 Au 3 and Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 34 Au 1 glasses show more positive corrosion potential than Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 35 alloy. Moreover, samples with Au addition Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 34 Au 3 (0.18 ml/cm 2 ) and Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 34 Au 1 (1.32 ml/cm 2 ) exhibited significantly less hydrogen evolution rates than base alloy Ca 47 Mg 18 Zn 35 (7.25 ml/cm 2 ) after 7 h. The reduced hydrogen volumes of the alloys with Au addition indicated that they can be used for wide range of biomedical applications. 1. Introduction Many examples of using biomaterials in medicine were frequently reported. In this group of materials very good mechanical properties and biocompatibility show metallic materials, polyurethanes (PU) and bioceramics with different surface modifications [1–4]. This kind of biomaterials can be used in skin repair. Ayati Najafabadi et al. [1] studied a biocompatibility of PU which was improved by chitosan and heparin grafted on its surface. The excellent cell attachment was ob- served for the same amount of modifiers (chitosan/heparin). Similar results of biological investigations determined by cell viability after 12 and 72 h were obtained in Ref. [2] for untreated polyurethane. Authors stated that carboxylic acid groups grafted on the PU surface have a negative effect on cell adhesion, growth and density. Ashuri et al. [3] investigated the activity of proliferated cells on biocomposites prepared from bioactive glass and hydroxyapatite. A very good bioactivity, ion release and cytocompatibility were obtained for the material with 20 wt.% content of bioactive glass. Different types of metallic implants have been prepared to improve the quality and comfort or to save human life. However, every foreign elements introduced into the body can cause negative effects. Bioresorbable materials, due to their slow solubility, filled a gap in this area of medicine, where only temporary presence of particular objects such as stents or surgical strands are needed. Metallic glasses (MGs) are expected as good examples of such materials [5–7]. Metallic glasses are presented as amorphous alloys with excellent physical and chemical properties. The limitation of size and thickness of MGs involved a development of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) in Zr-, Mg-, Ca-, La-, Pd-, Ti-based systems by various casting methods. These alloying systems guaranteed strong resistance to crystallization and also https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2018.12.088 Received 28 December 2017; Received in revised form 17 September 2018; Accepted 27 December 2018 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rafal.babilas@polsl.pl (R. Babilas). Materials Chemistry and Physics 226 (2019) 51–58 Available online 04 January 2019 0254-0584/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T