Ultrahigh specific strength in a magnesium alloy strengthened by spinodal decomposition

Tongzheng Xin; Yuhong Zhao; Reza Mahjoub; Jiaxi Jiang; Apurv Yadav; Keita Nomoto; Ranming Niu; Song Tang; Fan Ji; Zakaria Quadir; David Miskovic; John Daniels; Wanqiang Xu; Xiaozhou Liao; Long-Qing Chen; Koji Hagihara; Xiaoyan Li; Simon Ringer; Michael Ferry

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abf3039

Ultrahigh specific strength in a magnesium alloy strengthened by spinodal decomposition

Sci Adv. 2021 Jun 2;7(23):eabf3039. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf3039. Print 2021 Jun.

Authors

Tongzheng Xin¹, Yuhong Zhao^{2

3}, Reza Mahjoub⁴, Jiaxi Jiang⁵, Apurv Yadav⁶, Keita Nomoto⁶, Ranming Niu⁶, Song Tang¹, Fan Ji¹, Zakaria Quadir⁷, David Miskovic¹, John Daniels¹, Wanqiang Xu¹, Xiaozhou Liao⁶, Long-Qing Chen⁸, Koji Hagihara⁹, Xiaoyan Li¹⁰, Simon Ringer¹¹, Michael Ferry¹²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
² College of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China.
³ Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology, Beijing 100083, China.
⁴ Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
⁵ Center for Advanced Mechanics and Materials, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁶ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁷ Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility, John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6845, Australia.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁹ Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan.
¹⁰ Center for Advanced Mechanics and Materials, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. xiaoyanlithu@tsinghua.edu.cn simon.ringer@sydney.edu.au m.ferry@unsw.edu.au.
¹¹ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. xiaoyanlithu@tsinghua.edu.cn simon.ringer@sydney.edu.au m.ferry@unsw.edu.au.
¹² School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. xiaoyanlithu@tsinghua.edu.cn simon.ringer@sydney.edu.au m.ferry@unsw.edu.au.

Abstract

Strengthening of magnesium (Mg) is known to occur through dislocation accumulation, grain refinement, deformation twinning, and texture control or dislocation pinning by solute atoms or nano-sized precipitates. These modes generate yield strengths comparable to other engineering alloys such as certain grades of aluminum but below that of high-strength aluminum and titanium alloys and steels. Here, we report a spinodal strengthened ultralightweight Mg alloy with specific yield strengths surpassing almost every other engineering alloy. We provide compelling morphological, chemical, structural, and thermodynamic evidence for the spinodal decomposition and show that the lattice mismatch at the diffuse transition region between the spinodal zones and matrix is the dominating factor for enhancing yield strength in this class of alloy.

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