Mechanical properties of nanostructured Mg–5 wt%Al–x wt%AlN composite synthesized from Mg chips

In the present investigation, Mg chips are recycled to produce nanostructured Mg–5wt%Al reinforced with 1, 2 and 5 wt% nanosized AlN particulates by mechanical milling (MM). Each batch of composite mixture was milled for different milling durations to produce different degrees of grain refinement. The mechanical properties such as tensile strength, ductility and hardness with respect to the effect of grain refinement, in other words, milling duration were studied. It was found that grain size played an important role in controlling ductility of the composites.