Green Materials in the 21st Century: Magnesium Alloys
Magnesium alloy is an alloy with magnesium as the matrix and other elements added. Common alloy elements are aluminum, zinc, manganese, and zirconium, while other alloy elements include gadolinium, yttrium, strontium, tin, cerium, calcium, lanthanum, neodymium, lithium and scandium, and the impurity elements are mainly iron, silicon, nickel, copper and so on.
Magnesium alloy not only has various properties of magnesium but also can improve its mechanical, physical and chemical properties and meet the needs of different fields. Magnesium alloys are generally divided into casting magnesium alloys and deformation magnesium alloys according to the manufacturing process, and structural magnesium alloys and functional magnesium alloys according to functional properties. Functional magnesium alloys can also be divided into biomedical magnesium alloys, high damping magnesium alloys, electromagnetic shielding magnesium alloys, the thermal conductivity of magnesium alloys, battery alloys and so on. Magnesium and magnesium alloy products also include magnesium matrix composites, magnesium matrix hydrogen storage materials, magnesium sacrificial anode, magnesium powder, etc.
Magnesium alloy is a light engineering structural material in the world, which is being widely used in transportation tools, 3C products, aerospace, military equipment, general machinery, energy and other fields.
With the aggravation of the global resource and energy crisis, the application of magnesium alloy materials is one of the important ways to alleviate the resource crisis and reduce energy consumption and pollution. In the automotive industry, for example, it is estimated that 60% of the fuel used in automobiles is consumed by the self-weight of automobiles. If the car loses 10% of its weight, it will consume 8-10% less fuel than it used to. If 70 kilograms of magnesium can be used to each car, annual CO2 emissions can be reduced by more than 30%. Therefore, the large-scale application of magnesium alloy will bring significant social and economic effects.
Magnesium alloy is one of the internationally recognized lightweight materials with great potential. It is expected that the next 20 years will be a period of rapid growth in world magnesium alloy production and consumption. Magnesium is expected to be the third most basic metal material after steel and aluminum.
