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Abstract
Magnesium has attracted attention worldwide because it is the lightest structural metal. However, a high strength-to-weight ratio remains its only attribute, since an intrinsic lack of strength, ductility and low melting temperature severely restricts practical applications of Mg. Through interface strains, the crystal structure of Mg can be transformed and stabilized from a simple hexagonal (hexagonal close packed hcp) to body center cubic (bcc) crystal structure at ambient pressures. We demonstrate that when introduced into a nanocomposite bcc Mg is far more ductile, 50% stronger, and retains its strength after extended exposure to 200 C, which is 0.5 times its homologous temperature. These findings reveal an alternative solution to obtaining lightweight metals critically needed for future energy efficiency and fuel savings.
Highlights
Magnesium (Mg) is the lightest weight structural metal, and being 35% lighter than Al and 78% lighter than steel, it has tremendous potential for achieving higher energy efficiency, in the aerospace and automotive industries[1, 2]
As reported in this letter, we have carried out experiments to investigate the strength, deformation behavior, and thermal stability of bcc Mg within a nanolayered composite
We demonstrate that the Mg present in the 5 nm/5 nm Mg/Nb nanocomposite is entirely bcc, without any trace of hcp Mg
Summary
Both Mg and Nb layers were deposited in a magnetron sputtering system with a base pressure of 2 × 10−8 Torr. Both layers were deposited using DC magnetron sputtering at a process pressure of 3 millitorr with 300 watts of power on a 2-inch target. The deposition rates were 0.83 nm/sec for Mg and 0.22 nm/sec for Nb. The total film thicknesses for all samples were approximately 5 μm. Cross sectional TEM samples of the as-deposited films were prepared by mechanical polishing to a final thickness of 20–30 μm and a final finish of 1 μm with diamond lapping film, followed by ion-milling. The samples were examined using a Tecnai TF 30TM.
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