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Icosahedral quasicrystal structure of the Mg40Zn55Nd5 phase and its thermodynamic stability

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Abstract

The quasicrystal phase is beneficial to increasing the strength of magnesium alloys. However, its complicated structure and unclear phase relations impede the design of alloys with good mechanical properties. In this paper, the Mg40Zn55Nd5 icosahedral quasicrystal (I-phase) structure is discovered in an as-cast Mg-58Zn-4Nd alloy by atomic resolution high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). A cloud-like morphology is observed with Mg41.6Zn55.0Nd3.4 composition. The selected area electronic diffraction (SAED) analysis shows that the icosahedral quasicrystal structure has 5-fold, 4-fold, 3-fold, and 2-fold symmetry zone axes. The thermodynamic stability of the icosahedral quasicrystal is investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the annealed alloys. When annealed above 300°C, the Mg40Zn55Nd5 quasicrystal is found to decompose into a stable ternary phase Mg35Zn60Nd5, a binary phase MgZn, and α-Mg, suggesting that the quasicrystal is a metastable phase in the Mg-Zn-Nd system.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51871143 and 11972219), the Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai (No. 19010500400), Shanghai Rising-Star Program (No. 21QA1403200), and the Independent Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions of China (No. SKLMT-ZZKT-2021M11).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steels, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferrometallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Shuai Zhang, Hongcan Chen, Qun Luo & Qian Li

  2. Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Qianqian Li

  3. National Engineering Research Center for Magnesium Alloys, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Qian Li

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  1. Shuai Zhang
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  2. Qianqian Li
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Correspondence to Qun Luo or Qian Li.

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Zhang, S., Li, Q., Chen, H. et al. Icosahedral quasicrystal structure of the Mg40Zn55Nd5 phase and its thermodynamic stability. Int J Miner Metall Mater 29, 1543–1550 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-021-2391-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-021-2391-2

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