Formation Mechanism and Existing Form of Sb in Heat Resistance Mg-Gd-Y-Sb Alloy

Abstract

The existing form and reaction mechanism of Sb in heat resistane Mg-Gd-Y-Sb rare earth magnesium alloy were investigated by inductive coupled plasma emission spectroscopy(ICP), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It is found that Sb tends to form high melting point intermetallics with rare earth elements of Gd and Y. The existing form of Sb is determined to be GdSb and SbY, respectively, which has high melting point (GdSb: 2 142 °C/SbY: 1 782 °C). Meanwhile, the first principle calculation and electronegativity difference calculation were performed to further understand the reaction mechanism. Therefore, the forming heat and binding energy were calculated. The experimental results show that the binding tendency of Sb element to Gd and Y is much stronger than that of it with other elements in this alloy, which results in the formation of high melting point of Gd-Sb and Y-Sb intermetallics, and finally leads to the high temperature resistant further improvement of the Mg-Gd-Y magnesium alloy.

Keywords

Mg-Gd-Y-Sb alloys / rare earth elements / heat resistance property / intermetallics / first-principles calculation