Solid solution and precipitation strengthening effects in basal slip, extension twinning and pyramidal slip in Mg-Zn alloys

A high-throughput methodology is proposed, based on the combination of diffusion couples and ad-vanced nanomechanical testing methods, to directly measure alloying effects on the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) of individual deformation modes in Mg alloys. The methodology is tested in Mg-Zn alloys by assessing the alloying effects, up to Zn contents of 2 at.%, on basal slip, extension twining and pyramidal slip in two metallurgical conditions: as-quenched, for which the Zn solute atoms remain homogenously dispersed in solid solution; and peak-aged, for which the Zn atoms form rod-shape beta(1)' (MgZn2) pre-cipitates. A combined approach including micromechanical testing, transmission Kikuchi diffraction, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy was performed to reveal the corresponding deformation mechanisms. It was found that the CRSS enhancement for basal slip and extension twinning by MgZn2 precipitates is considerably larger than the effect of Zn in solid solution, while the strengthening of pyra-midal slip is similar in both cases. As a result, the anisotropy ratios remain high and similar to pure Mg in the solid solution strengthened Mg-Zn alloys. However, they are substantially reduced in precipitation strengthened Mg-Zn alloys. (C) 2021 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved