Professor Qin Gaowu's Team from the Institute for Strategic Materials and Components, in Collaboration with Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research, Makes Progress in the Design and Preparation of High-Performance Magnesium Alloys

Professor Qin Gaowu’s team from the Institute for Strategic Materials and Components, in collaboration with Senior Engineer Chen Anqi from the Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research, has achieved a key breakthrough in the design and preparation of high-performance magnesium alloys. Through an innovative process, they successfully prepared a WE43 magnesium alloy with a “gradient nanostructure,” simultaneously enhancing the material’s strength and plasticity. This provides a new solution to the long-standing “strength-plasticity trade-off” dilemma in the field of magnesium alloys. On December 9, 2025, the related research findings were published in the materials science journal Journal of Magnesium and Alloys under the title “Deformation behavior and strengthening mechanism of a gradient nanostructured WE43 Mg alloy.” Tang Yan from Shenyang University of Chemical Technology is the first author, while Professor Qin Gaowu from Shenyang University of Chemical Technology and Senior Engineer Chen Anqi from the Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research are the corresponding authors. Shenyang University of Chemical Technology is the primary completing institution.

Figure: Gradient Nanostructure Morphology of WE43 Magnesium Alloy Sheet

Magnesium alloys, due to their advantages such as low density, high specific strength, and good casting performance, hold broad application prospects in fields like aerospace, rail transportation, and biomedicine. However, issues like low strength and poor plasticity have restricted their further engineering applications. To address this challenge, the research team innovatively employed Surface Friction Treatment (SFT) technology to successfully prepare WE43 magnesium alloy sheets with a gradient nanostructure at room temperature. The grain size on the surface was refined to approximately 50 nanometers, achieving a continuous gradient distribution from surface nanocrystals to coarse grains in the core.

Through multi-scale characterization methods including Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD), the study systematically revealed the three-stage formation mechanism of the gradient nanostructure: the initial stage is dominated by multiple slips and twinning; the intermediate stage involves the decomposition of twin crystals and coarse grains into fine strips and fine grains through dislocation accumulation and stacking faults (SFs); the later stage utilizes high-density SFs for further refinement down to nanocrystals. The research found that stacking faults play a key role in nanocrystal refinement, not only promoting the activation of non-basal slips but also providing nucleation sites for dynamic recrystallization. Mechanical property tests showed that the yield strength of the gradient nanostructured WE43 alloy increased by approximately 25% (about 50 MPa), and the tensile strength increased by about 30% (approximately 90 MPa), while also exhibiting significantly enhanced work-hardening capability. The strengthening mechanism primarily stems from the synergistic effect of grain boundary strengthening and dislocation strengthening. This research not only provides a new approach for the strength-toughness design of magnesium alloys but also lays a theoretical and experimental foundation for the application of gradient-structured materials in the lightweight field. The research findings hold guiding significance for promoting the application of high-performance magnesium alloys in high-end equipment manufacturing.

Translator: Myradov Tahyr

Reviewer: Luc Thi My Le

Final approval: Wang Meng