A new approach to grain refinement of an Mg–Li–Al cast alloy

Crystallographic calculation based on the edge-to-edge matching model predicted that both TiB2 and Al3Ti intermetallic compounds have strong potential to be effective grain refiners for β phase in the Mg–14Li–1Al alloy due to the small atomic matching misfit across the interface between the compounds and β phase. Experimental results showed that addition of 1.25 wt%Al–5Ti–1B master alloy reduced grain size of β phase in the alloy from 1750 to 500 μm. The possible grain refining mechanisms were also discussed.