Spark Plasma Sintering of Mg-based Alloys: Microstructure, Mechanical Properties, Corrosion Behavior, and Tribological Performance
Available online 12 October 2023
Full Length Article
Alessandro M. Ralls, Mohammadreza Daroonparvar, Pradeep L. Menezes
Abstract
Within the past ten years, spark plasma sintering (SPS) has become an
increasingly popular process for Mg manufacturing. In the SPS process,
interparticle diffusion of compressed particles is rapidly achieved due
to the concept of Joule heating. Compared to traditional and additive
manufacturing (AM) techniques, SPS gives unique control of the
structural and microstructural features of Mg components. By doing so,
their mechanical, tribological, and corrosion properties can be
tailored. Although great advancements in this field have been made,
these pieces of knowledge are scattered and have not been contextualized
into a single work. The motivation of this work is to address this
scientific gap and to provide a groundwork for understanding the basics
of SPS manufacturing for Mg. To do so, the existing body of SPS Mg
literature was first surveyed, with a focus on their structural
formation and degradation mechanisms. It was found that successful Mg
SPS fabrication highly depended on the processing temperature, particle
size, and particle crystallinity. The addition of metal and ceramic
composites also affected their microstructural features due to the Zener
pinning effect. In degradative environments, their performance depends
on their structural features and whether they have secondary phased
composites. In industrial applications, SPS'd Mg was found to have great
potential in biomedical, hydrogen storage, battery, automotive, and
recycling sectors. The prospects to advance the field include using Mg
as a doping agent for crystallite size refinement and using bulk
metallic Mg-based glass powders for amorphous SPS components. Despite
these findings, the interactions of multi-composites on the
processing-structure-property relationships of SPS Mg is not well
understood. In total, this work will provide a useful direction in the
SPS field and serve as a milestone for future Mg-based SPS
manufacturing.