title: A high-specific-strength and corrosion-resistant magnesium alloy.
abstract: Ultra-lightweight alloys with high strength, ductility and corrosion resistance are desirable for applications in the automotive, aerospace, defence, biomedical, sporting and electronic goods sectors. Ductility and corrosion resistance are generally inversely correlated with strength, making it difficult to optimize all three simultaneously. Here we design an ultralow density (1.4 g cm(-3)) Mg-Li-based alloy that is strong, ductile, and more corrosion resistant than Mg-based alloys reported so far. The alloy is Li-rich and a solute nanostructure within a body-centred cubic matrix is achieved by a series of extrusion, heat-treatment and rolling processes. Corrosion resistance from the environment is believed to occur by a uniform lithium carbonate film in which surface coverage is much greater than in traditional hexagonal close-packed Mg-based alloys, explaining the superior corrosion resistance of the alloy.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.|Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Australia.
authors.forename: Wanqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Australia.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birbilis
authors.affiliation: Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu 210094, China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sha
authors.affiliation: Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Daniels
authors.affiliation: Zhengzhou Light Metals Research Institute of Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (CHALCO), Zhengzhou, Henan 450041, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.|Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferry