Microstructure and strengthening mechanism of hot-extruded ultralight Mg-Li-Al-Sn alloys with high strength

Abstract Duplex-structured Mg-7Li-2Al-1.5Sn alloys with high strength were fabricated and their strengthening mechanism was investigated. The Mg-7Li-2Al-1.5Sn alloys were prepared by casting and extruded at the temperature of 533 K with an extrusion ratio of 25:1. The microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-7Li-2Al-1.5Sn alloys were systematically investigated by OM, XRD, SEM, TEM, and tensile tests. The results show that Mg-7Li-2Al-1.5Sn alloys are mainly composed of α-Mg, β-Li, LiMgAl2, Mg2Sn and Li2MgSn phases. The yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation (EL) of the extruded alloy at room temperature reach 250 MPa, 324 MPa and 11.9%, respectively. A lot of Sn-rich precipitates (Mg2Sn and Li2MgSn) are precipitated during extrusion with an average size of ∼14 nm, which is beneficial to the grain refinement. Dynamic recrystallization occurs during hot deformation and the nano-precipitates effectively refine the dynamic recrystallized (DRXed) grains. Besides, the residual dislocations existed in DRXed and un-DRXed grains result in the dislocation strengthening in the extruded alloy. Mg-7Li-2Al-1.5Sn alloys possess excellent high-temperature mechanical properties with the YS, UTS and EL of 200 MPa, 237 MPa and 26.7% at 423 K, respectively. Sn-rich precipitates with good thermal stability can effectively prevent grain growth, which is good for the improvement of the high-temperature performance of Mg-Li-Al-Sn alloy.