Preparation and compression performance of porous magnesium alloy composite with ceramic hollow spheres

Abstract Using two different ceramic hollow spheres (the commercial alumina hollow sphere and the self-made silicon-containing ceramic hollow sphere) as reinforcements, two kinds of lightweight porous magnesium alloy composite materials were successfully fabricated by sintering at 600 °C for 3 h 20 min. The microstructure of samples with the self-made silicon-containing ceramic hollow sphere reveals that an alloy phase containing MgO and Mg2Si was formed by an interfacial reaction at the interface between the magnesium alloy and the self-made ceramic hollow sphere. The formation of the alloy phase is beneficial to improve the mechanical properties of the sample. The influence of different types of ceramic hollow spheres on the apparent density, compressive strength, specific strength, energy absorption, and energy absorption efficiency was studied for these porous products. The results show that the apparent density of these two porous samples is markedly lower than that of the magnesium alloy. The Compression curves of both samples have the elastic stage, the yield platform, and the densification stage, which are the typical compression characteristics of porous materials. The compressive strength and specific strength of the samples made by self-made silicon-containing ceramic hollow spheres are both significantly higher than those made by commercial alumina hollow spheres. Moreover, the energy absorption performance of the sample made by self-made silicon-containing ceramic hollow spheres is better than that of the sample made by alumina hollow spheres. The higher energy absorption capacity and the wider strain range of maintaining the maximum energy absorption efficiency mean the sample made by self-made silicon-containing ceramic hollow spheres can absorb more energy.