Simultaneously enhancing strength and toughness of graphene oxide reinforced ZK60 magnesium matrix composites through powder thixoforming

Abstract

Simultaneously realizing high strength and ductility has been a hot but also difficult subject for structural metal materials, especially Mg alloys, it is always unavoidable to sacrifice ductility as strength improvement and vice versa. Here, we report an effective technology, namely powder thixoforming, to attempt to overcome the trade-off between strength and ductility of a ZK60 Mg alloy based composite reinforced by graphene oxide. It is found that the composite prepared by utilizing segmented ball milling exhibits a tensile yield strength of 177 MPa, which is 21.2% and 36.2% higher than those of the corresponding ball-milled and un-milled ZK60 alloys, respectively, while maintaining a high tensile elongation to failure of 23.09%, being equivalent to that of the unreinforced counterpart and 20.3% higher than that of the un-milled ZK60 alloy. This work represents a promising technology for fabricating carbon nanomaterials reinforced metal-based composites with both high strength and ductility.