Mechanical properties of replicated cellular Zn and Zn1.5Mg in uniaxial compression

Highlights: • Replication processing can produce cellular Zn alloys with relative density 12–25%. • Cellular Zn and Zn1.5 Mg deform as elastic-plastic materials in a compression test. • Plateau stress depends on relative density with a power-law exponent of 2.8. • Ambient temperature creep rates are below 10⁻⁸ s⁻¹ in the conditions explored here. -- Abstract: We present here a study of the mechanical behavior of cellular Zn and Zn1.5Mg with densities between 11.9 and 24.5%, produced by replication processing using NaCl as a spaceholder. Cellular Zn and Zn1.5Mg deform homogeneously during quasi-static compression. The plateau stress scales with the relative density according to a power-law of exponent of 2.8 for both materials; recorded values are 6.0 ± 0.6 MPa for cellular Zn of relative density 24% and 10.0 ± 0.5 MPa for cellular Zn1.5Mg of relative density 23%. In ambient-temperature creep tests with loads up to 50% of the plateau stress, after more than 70 h deformation remains negligible (in the range of experimental error). This observation, coupled with other measured mechanical properties, indicates that replicated cellular Zn and Zn1.5Mg are viable materials in the context of their application as a low load-bearing implant material.