An Al-Mg layered double oxide architectured Al₂O₃/AZ91D composites in balancing the strength-ductility trade-off

The strength-ductility trade-off has long challenged particle-reinforced metal matrix composites (MMCs). This paper presents an Al-Mg layered double oxide (LDO consisted of Al2O3(1 210)//MgAl2O4(004)//MgO(002) at the Al2O3 side, and a MgO(200)//Mg(1 102) the Mg matrix side) architectured Al2O3/AZ91D composite. The intermediate LDO bonds the inner hard Al2O3 reinforcement and the soft AZ91D matrix, which is beneficial to the trade-off between strength and plasticity of ceramic particle reinforced MMCs. An effective load-transfer enhancement and easy dislocation-bypass across the LDO with a set of coherent pairs (Al2O3-MgAl2O4, MgAl2O4-MgO, MgO-Mg, contributes to this synchronization improvement of strength and plasticity. This work sheds some light on fabricating Mg matrix composites with high strength and ductility.