Effects of adding Al-Si eutectic alloy and hot rolling on microstructures and mechanical behavior of Mg-8Li alloys

Four alloys of Mg-8Li, Mg-8Li-3Al, Mg-8Li-3(Al-Si) and Mg-8Li-6(Al-Si) were prepared, using the vacuum suction casting. The hot-rolling process was used to deform the prepared alloys. The effects of the addition of Al-Si eutectic alloy and the hot-rolling on the microstructures and mechanical behavior of the dual-phase Mg-8Li alloys were investigated. Adding Al and Al-Si eutectic alloy in the Mg-8Li alloy led to the refinement of the microstructures. The experimental results show that adding Al-Si eutectic alloy dramatically improved the tensile strength of the dual-phase Mg-8Li alloys with a slight decrease of elongation. The as-rolled Mg-8Li-6(Al-Si) alloy had a tensile strength of up to ∼390 MPa with relatively large elongation.