Research Progress in High-Performance Ultrahigh-Pressure Treated Magnesium Alloys

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00366

Acta Metall Sin

2025, Vol. 61

Issue (3): 475-487 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00366

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Research Progress in High-Performance Ultrahigh-Pressure Treated Magnesium Alloys

FU Hui¹, SUN Yong², ZOU Guodong², ZHANG Fan¹, YANG Xusheng³, ZHANG Tao¹, PENG Qiuming²(

)

1 School of Physics and Materials Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
3 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China

Cite this article:

FU Hui, SUN Yong, ZOU Guodong, ZHANG Fan, YANG Xusheng, ZHANG Tao, PENG Qiuming. Research Progress in High-Performance Ultrahigh-Pressure Treated Magnesium Alloys. Acta Metall Sin, 2025, 61(3): 475-487.

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Abstract

Magnesium alloys are the lightest metallic structural materials. The density of magnesium alloys is ~1.7 g/cm³, which is ~2/3 of the aluminum alloy, ~2/5 of titanium alloys, and ~1/4 of steel. Magnesium alloys possess high specific strength, excellent casting performance, excellent biocompatibility, good electromagnetic shielding performance, remarkable damping performance, and ease of recovery. They have broad application potential in aerospace, defense, automobile transportation, biomedical, electronic 3C, construction, and energy fields. China has substantial Mg resources. The development of low-cost and high-performance magnesium alloys in the lightweight field can transform resource advantages into industrial benefits while promoting energy conservation and emission reduction in production and daily life. This is strategically significant for the enhancement of the country's technology industry and the achievement of the objectives of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”. However, commercial magnesium alloys currently possess relatively low strength, poor ductility, and corrosion resistance compared with common metallic structural materials like steel and aluminum alloys, significantly hindering the large-scale industrial application of magnesium alloys as structural materials. Many methods exist to enhance the comprehensive mechanical properties of magnesium alloys. Conventionally, the microstructure of magnesium alloys can be modified by adding alloying elements, plastic deformation, and heat treatment. The strength of magnesium alloys can be improved through grain refinement, work hardening, solid solution strengthening, and precipitation strengthening. Nevertheless, magnesium alloys prepared through these traditional methods can achieve excellent strength but at the expense of ductility, leading to the strength-ductility tradeoff in the magnesium alloy. At present, ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) treatment technology can achieve novel phases and modified microstructures that cannot be prepared under atmospheric pressure. The pressure significantly impacts the thermodynamics and dynamic parameters of metallic materials, such as the equilibrium temperature, critical radius for nucleation, interfacial free energy, chemical potential, entropy, enthalpy and heat capacity, and nucleation rate. Thus, the solid solubility, grain size, morphologies, dislocation density and types, twin types and morphologies, as well as the distribution and morphologies of the intermetallic phases of the magnesium alloys, can be modified using UHP treatment combined with temperature. It offers significant potential for altering the microstructure of magnesium alloys, providing new paths to break the bottlenecks between the comprehensive properties. This paper summarizes the progress of the research on the UHP treatment of high-performance magnesium alloys, the fabrication technology, and the technical characteristics of the UHP treatment. Moreover, the effects of UHP treatment on the mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and hydrogen storage properties of magnesium alloys by modifying the microstructures of magnesium alloys are emphasized. Finally, the future development directions of the UHP magnesium alloys are explored.

Key words: magnesium alloy ultrahigh-pressure strength-ductility synergy corrosion resistance hydrogen storage property

Received: 04 November 2024

ZTFLH:

TG146.2

Fund: Ministry of Education Yangtze River Scholar Professor Program(T2020124);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52371104);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52171126);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52202374);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52331003);Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(2024A1515013052);Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Special Project(2024A04J4289);HK PolyU grant(1-YXB4)

Corresponding Authors: PENG Qiuming, professor, Tel: (0335)8057047, E-mail: pengqiuming@ysu.edu.cn

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	FU Hui
	SUN Yong
	ZOU Guodong
	ZHANG Fan
	YANG Xusheng
	ZHANG Tao
	PENG Qiuming

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00366 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2025/V61/I3/475

Fig.1 Schematics of the common ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) treatment equipments

Fig.2 OM images of Mg-30Al samples under different states^[9] (A—snowflake-like Mg matrix, B—eutectic phase, SHP—super-high pressure. 800, 950, 1050, and 1150 represent 800, 950, 1050 and 1150 ^oC, respectively)
(a) as-cast (b) SHP-2 GPa-800 (c) SHP-2 GPa-950 (d) SHP-4 GPa-1050 (e) SHP-4 GPa-1150

Fig.3 Phase fraction of β-Li phase (a) and typical TEM (b) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) (c) images of dual-phase Mg-8Li alloys treated at 1000 ^oC under 6 GPa^[6] (LAGB—low angle grain boundary, MTB—macrotwin boundary, NTB—nanotwin boundary)

Fig.4 Comparisons of the yield strength and fracture ductility of UHPed Mg-Li-x alloys^[6,26,28,29]

Fig.5 Summary of effects of the UHP on the microstructure of the Mg-Al, Mg-Li, and Mg-RE alloys

Fig.6 Near-in-situ SEM images of surfaces of 4 GPa-900 Mg-13Li sample immersed in 3.5%NaCl (mass fraction) solution for 5 min (a), 15 min (b), 30 min (c), 60 min (d), 90 min (e), and 120 min (f)^[12]

Fig.7 OM (a, c, e, f) and SEM (b, d) images of Mg-5Ni alloys with different states (1100, 1400, and 1600 represent 1100, 1400, and 1600 ^oC, respectively)^[54]
(a, b) as-cast sample (c, d) 6 GPa-1100 (e) 6 GPa-1400 (f) 6 GPa-1600

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