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Cryomilling and spark plasma sintering of nanocrystalline magnesium-based alloy

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Abstract

The microstructure characteristics of nanocrystalline magnesium-based alloy processed by cryomilling and spark plasma sintering were investigated. The as-received and cryomilled powders and the consolidated bulk material were characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopies, x-ray diffraction, and electron dispersive spectroscopy techniques. The cryomilled powders resulted in an average grain size of 25 nm. After spark plasma sintering, a bimodal grain size distribution with coarse grains around 500 nm and fine grains of 52 nm, which is one of the smallest grain sizes reported in bulk nanostructured Mg alloys, was found. Our results suggest this novel process as a viable method to provide new opportunities for the development of nanostructured Mg-based alloys.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their appreciation to the Army Research Office (ARO) for financial support of this work under the ARO Contract No. W911NF-09-1-0558. They are particularly grateful to the ARO program manager, Dr. Larry Russell. They are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their insightful remarks that helped to improve the scientific quality of the original manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California−Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 90095, USA

    Marta Pozuelo & Jenn-Ming Yang

  2. California Nanotechnologies Inc., Cerritos, California, 90703, USA

    Christopher Melnyk

  3. Institute for Technology Advancement, University of California−Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 90095, USA

    Wei H. Kao

Authors
  1. Marta Pozuelo
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  2. Christopher Melnyk
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  3. Wei H. Kao
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  4. Jenn-Ming Yang
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Correspondence to Marta Pozuelo.

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Pozuelo, M., Melnyk, C., Kao, W.H. et al. Cryomilling and spark plasma sintering of nanocrystalline magnesium-based alloy. Journal of Materials Research 26, 904–911 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2010.94

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2010.94

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