Research progress on nanoparticles reinforced magnesium alloys

Magnesium alloys, acknowledged as the environmentally-friendly engineering material of the 21st century, are ideally suited to fulfill the requirements of lightweight manufacturing. However, the poor plasticity of magnesium alloys hampers their further application. Subsequently, development of nanoparticle-reinforced magnesium matrix composites has been proven to be a promising way to enhance the comprehensive performance of magnesium alloys. The exceptional performance achieved even by very small number of reinforcements stimulated innovation in preparation techniques and in-depth analysis of reinforcement mechanisms. This paper provides a review on key challenges related to their processing, the profound impact of different micro-nanoparticle reinforcements on the microstructure and properties of magnesium matrix composites during solidification and subsequent deformation machining. Additionally, the reinforcement mechanisms of the excellent mechanical performance of the composites are also discussed. This study can provide valuable insights for the understanding of the selection of appropriate reinforcements and processing to optimize the performance nanoparticle-reinforced magnesium matrix composites.