Activation of {1 0 1¯ 2} twinning and slip in high ductile Mg–2.0Zn–0.8Gd rolled sheet with non-basal texture during tensile deformation at room temperature

•Mg-Zn-Gd sheet shows non-basal texture with double peaks tilting ±42° to TD.•The sheet shows high elongation of 43% along the TD at room temperature.•{1 0 1¯ 2} twinning and basal slip were activated during tensile deformation.•The failure was caused by the brittle fracture of large particles.•The activation of {1 0 1¯ 2} and slip are responsible for the high ductility.

New Mg–2.0Zn–0.8Gd alloy sheet showing non-basal texture with double peaks tilting ±42° from the normal direction towards the transverse direction were fabricated by common rolling process. The sheet exhibited high room-temperature elongation of 43% along the transverse direction. Tensile tests were carried out at room temperature aiming to explore reasons for the high ductility through investigating deformation modes by characterizing microstructure and texture evolution. The results indicated that {1 0 1¯ 2} twinning and basal slip played important roles during the uniform elongation due to their large Schmid factor, while non-basal slip played a significant role during the late deformation and contributed to the high ductility. The brittle fracture of large particles led to the failure of the sheets. It is proposed that that the high ductility of the sheet with non-basal texture is attributed to the prevalence of {1 0 1¯ 2} twinning and basal slip combined with the absence of {1 0 1¯ 1} twinning and the low volume faction of large brittle particles.