Insights from a Recent Meeting: Current Status and Future Directions in Magnesium Corrosion Research

The United States Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office held a Technical Review Meeting entitled "Current Status and Future Directions in Magnesium Corrosion Research" at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April 2016. Current funded Mg corrosion projects presented their latest results, along with invited presentations from academic and industrial researchers in the area of Mg corrosion. This paper overviews select topics from the meeting, with an emphasis on relaying meeting discussion points regarding future needs in understanding and mitigating Mg corrosion, particularly for automotive applications. Topics highlighted include the need for pretreatments and coatings suitable for mass vehicle production of Mg components, particularly for dissimilar metal joints involving Mg, Al, or steel, and corrosion evaluation methods more relevant to automotive components and operating conditions. From a scientific perspective, the need for better fundamental understanding of Mg dissolution, hydrogen evolution, and film formation behavior was a recurring theme, as was phenomena related to microgalvanic coupling involving second phases and impurities in Mg.