Magnesium-based nanocomposites: Lightweight materials of the future

•A tutorial review on magnesium-based nanocomposites is presented.•Various processing techniques for fabrication of magnesium-based nanocomposites are briefly described.•The incorporation of nanoreinforcements led to an improvement in mechanical, corrosion and wear properties of magnesium.•Potential applications and uses for these nanocomposites are presented.

Magnesium and its alloys reinforced with nano-size reinforcements display improved mechanical properties without significant reduction in the ductility that is usually associated with the addition of micron size reinforcements, making them an attractive choice for lightweight structural applications. This paper provides a review of magnesium nanocomposites containing ceramic and metallic reinforcements synthesized using liquid based (Disintegrated Melt Deposition Technique) and solid based (Powder Metallurgy and Microwave Sintering) processing techniques. The properties of these nanocomposites will be discussed in terms of microstructure, grain size, hardness, tensile, compressive, dynamic, high temperature, corrosion, fatigue and wear.