TY - JOUR
T1 - Corrosion resistant and high-strength dual-phase Mg-Li-Al-Zn alloy by friction stir processing
AU - Zeng, Zhuoran
AU - Zhou, Mengran
AU - Esmaily, Marco
AU - Zhu, Yuman
AU - Choudhary, Sanjay
AU - Griffith, James C.
AU - Ma, Jisheng
AU - Hora, Yvonne
AU - Chen, Yu
AU - Gullino, Alessio
AU - Shi, Qingyu
AU - Fujii, Hidetoshi
AU - Birbilis, Nick
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Magnesium is the lightest structural metal, and alloying with lithium makes it even lighter. However, multi-phase Mg-Li alloys typically undergo rapid corrosion, and their strength decreases at room temperature due to natural age-softening. Here, we engineer a rapidly degrading dual-phase Mg-Li-Al alloy to be durable via friction stir processing followed by liquid CO2 quenching. The best performing alloy has a low electrochemical degradation rate of 0.72 mg·cm−2· day−1, and high specific strength of 209 kN·m·kg−1. We attribute this electrochemical and mechanical durability to its microstructure, which consists of a refined grain size of approximately 2 µm and dense nanoprecipitates. This microstructure suppressed the formation of the detrimental AlLi phase, and an aluminium-rich protective surface layer also formed. This processing route might be useful for designing lightweight and durable engineering alloys.
AB - Magnesium is the lightest structural metal, and alloying with lithium makes it even lighter. However, multi-phase Mg-Li alloys typically undergo rapid corrosion, and their strength decreases at room temperature due to natural age-softening. Here, we engineer a rapidly degrading dual-phase Mg-Li-Al alloy to be durable via friction stir processing followed by liquid CO2 quenching. The best performing alloy has a low electrochemical degradation rate of 0.72 mg·cm−2· day−1, and high specific strength of 209 kN·m·kg−1. We attribute this electrochemical and mechanical durability to its microstructure, which consists of a refined grain size of approximately 2 µm and dense nanoprecipitates. This microstructure suppressed the formation of the detrimental AlLi phase, and an aluminium-rich protective surface layer also formed. This processing route might be useful for designing lightweight and durable engineering alloys.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127943615&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43246-022-00245-3
DO - 10.1038/s43246-022-00245-3
M3 - Article
SN - 2662-4443
VL - 3
JO - Communications Materials
JF - Communications Materials
IS - 1
M1 - 18
ER -