Structural investigations of rapidly solidified Mg–Cu–Y alloys

This paper presents a systematic study on the structure, phase composition, strength and hardness of the rapidly solidified Mg100−2xCuxYx alloys. Their structure mostly consists of relatively large dendritic grains of hcp-Mg phase and smaller grains of CuMg2 phase. Nano-particles of CuMg2 phase were also observed as a result of decomposition of the supersaturated Mg-solid solution. As in the Mg98Cu1Y1 alloy studied earlier some fraction of the glassy phase was observed in the studied alloys and the volume fraction of the glassy phase increases with increase in Cu- and Y-content. Yield stress and Vickers microhardness values in general increase with increase in the solute content and reach a saturation at x = 4–5.