Effect of extrusion treatment on mechanical, thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys

Abstract

The effect of extrusion treatment on the mechanical, thermal and corrosion resistance of Mg–La–Zn–Zr alloys were presented. It is suggested that the amount of recrystallized grains played a major role in both mechanical properties and thermal properties. It should be noted the as-cast alloy shows the best thermal conductivity reached the value about 137.507 W/(m · K), however, the mechanical performance of magnesium alloys does not reach the expected results. The thermal properties of extruded alloys have slightly decreased and then increased with the increase of extrusion temperature. Then the tensile properties of Mg–La–Zn–Zr were significantly improved after extrusion treatment. Furthermore, with the increase of extrusion temperature, the elongation-to-fracture increased substantially. After extrusion treatment, the corrosion driving force of the alloy decreases, which reduces the corrosion tendency of the magnesium alloy. The alloy presented in this paper is expected to be applied in industry.