Effects of Ni levels on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Ni-Y alloy reinforced with LPSO structure

The evolution of phase constituent of Mg99.0-xNixY1.0 (x = 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 1.5, at.%) alloys was investigated by OM, SEM/EDS, TEM and XRD. Apart from the α-Mg phase, the secondary phases in these ternary alloys mainly consist of LPSO (long period stacking ordered) structure, Mg24Y5 phase or Mg2Ni phase, which depend on the atomic ratio of Ni and Y. The amount of LPSO structure in the alloys increases firstly and then decreases with the increase of Ni level, but the change in the amount of LPSO structure is not proportional to that of Ni level. In the as-cast alloys containing excessive Ni, there exist two forms of LPSO structures with different characteristics of bulk and lamellar shapes, respectively. During solidification process, part of the bulk 18R-type LPSO structure formed firstly is transformed to the lamellar 14H-type LPSO structure. The tensile properties of different alloys are tested and the changing trend of strength is similar to that of the amount of LPSO structure. When the Ni content is 0.5 at.%, the ultimate tensile strength, yield stress and elongation are 208 MPa, 93 MPa and 8.0%, respectively, which are the optimal properties among these alloys.