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A high-specific-strength and corrosion-resistant magnesium alloy

Nature Materials volume 14, pages 1229–1235 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultra-lightweight alloys with high strength, ductility and corrosion resistance are desirable for applications in the automotive, aerospace, defence, biomedical, sporting and electronic goods sectors. Ductility and corrosion resistance are generally inversely correlated with strength, making it difficult to optimize all three simultaneously. Here we design an ultralow density (1.4 g cm−3) Mg–Li-based alloy that is strong, ductile, and more corrosion resistant than Mg-based alloys reported so far. The alloy is Li-rich and a solute nanostructure within a body-centred cubic matrix is achieved by a series of extrusion, heat-treatment and rolling processes. Corrosion resistance from the environment is believed to occur by a uniform lithium carbonate film in which surface coverage is much greater than in traditional hexagonal close-packed Mg-based alloys, explaining the superior corrosion resistance of the alloy.

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Figure 1: Optimization of the strength–ductility–corrosion property profile of the Mg–Li alloy.
Figure 2: Effect of thermal and mechanical treatment on hardness and corrosion susceptibility.
Figure 3: Key structural changes in the Mg–Li alloy during various stages of processing.
Figure 4: Corrosion behaviour and the protective surface layers that form on the Mg–Li alloy.
Figure 5: Surface layer formation on hcp Mg and bcc Mg–Li after exposure to standard atmospheric conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Australia–China Science & Research Fund (ACSRF) for funding of this work via the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals (Grant no. CEO561574), Australia–China Research Centre for Light Metals (AccLiM) (Grant no: ACSRF00301) and ARC Discovery Scheme (Grant no. DP150103290). The authors would also like to thank the UNSW and USYD nodes of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF) for providing access to their electron microscopy and atom probe tomography facilities, CHALCO for casting and extruding the alloy, and the Australian Synchrotron for the provision of experimental time. We are indebted to B. Gong and M.Z. Quadir of UNSW for their assistance with XPS and TEM, respectively, S.P. Ringer of University of Sydney for the provision of APT facilities for the WQ alloy, and T. Liu of Monash University for assistance with mass loss and hydrogen evolution tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia

    Wanqiang Xu, John E. Daniels & Michael Ferry

  2. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Australia

    Wanqiang Xu, Nick Birbilis & Michael Ferry

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

    Nick Birbilis

  4. Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu 210094, China

    Gang Sha

  5. Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia

    Yu Wang

  6. Zhengzhou Light Metals Research Institute of Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (CHALCO), Zhengzhou, Henan 450041, China

    Yang Xiao

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  1. Wanqiang Xu
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  3. Gang Sha
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  4. Yu Wang
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  7. Michael Ferry
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Contributions

W.X. carried out the thermal and mechanical processing of the alloy, including structural analyses using SEM, TEM, XRD texture and XPS, and the mechanical property analyses. Y.X. developed the optimal alloy composition and cast and extruded the material. N.B. and W.X. carried out the corrosion investigations. G.S. carried out the APT investigations. Y.W. carried out the laboratory XRD investigations. J.E.D. carried out the high-resolution synchrotron XRD investigations. M.F. and W.X. designed the experimental programme and M.F. coordinated the overall project. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results and to the writing of the paper.

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Correspondence to Michael Ferry.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Xu, W., Birbilis, N., Sha, G. et al. A high-specific-strength and corrosion-resistant magnesium alloy. Nature Mater 14, 1229–1235 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4435

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