Aging behaviour and precipitate morphologies in Mg–7.7Al–0.5Zn–0.3Mn (wt.%) alloy

All the precipitate morphologies of Mg17Al12 in AZ80 for a range of aging temperatures are investigated in detail using TEM and SEM. The results show that Mg17Al12 is the dominant precipitate in AZ80 and can be divided into different types which can be discriminated by their morphologies. To date there have been few papers in the literature focused on the relationship between the aging behaviour and these morphologies. This study elaborates on the sequence of morphological evolution of Mg17Al12 precipitates as a function of temperature and investigates the associated age-hardening response.