Ca Addition Effects on the Microstructure, Tensile and Corrosion Properties of Mg Matrix Alloy Containing 8 wt.% Mg₂Si

The microstructure, tensile properties and corrosion behavior of the Mg-8 wt.% Mg₂Si-x%Ca alloy have been studied by the use of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, standard tensile testing, polarization test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. Microstructural studies indicated that Ca modifies both primary and eutectic Mg₂Si phase. It was found that the average size of primary Mg₂Si particles is about 60 μm, which is dropped by about 82% in the alloy containing 0.05 wt.% Ca. By the addition of different Ca contents, Ca-rich intermetallics (i.e., CaSi₂ and CaMgSi) were formed. The modification mechanism of adding Ca during solidification was found to be due to the strong effect of CaMgSi phase as a heterogonous nucleation site, apart from CaSi₂ which was reported before, for Mg₂Si intermetallics. Tensile testing results ascertained that Ca addition enhances both ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation values. The optimum amount of Ca was found to be 0.1 wt.%, which improved UTS and elongation values from about 130 MPa and 2% to 165 MPa and 5.5%, whereas more Ca addition (i.e., 3 wt.%) reduced the tensile properties of the alloy to about 105 MPa and 1.8%, which can be due to the formation of CaMgSi intermetallics with deteriorating needle-like morphology. Polarization and EIS tests also showed that the Mg-3%Si-0.5%Ca alloy pronounces as the best anti-corrosion alloy. Nevertheless, further added Ca (up to 3 wt.%) deteriorated the corrosion resistance due to predominance of worse galvanic coupling effect stemmed from the presence of stronger CaMgSi cathode in comparison with Mg₂Si. With higher Ca additions, an adverse effect was seen on corrosion resistance of the Mg-3%Si alloy, as a result of forming a weak film on the alloy specimen surface.