Development of Novel Lightweight Metastable Metal-(Metal + Ceramic) Composites Using a New Powder Metallurgy Approach

In the current study, metal-(metal + ceramic) composites composed of biocompatible elements, magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), calcium (Ca) and manganese (Mn) were synthesized using a sinter-less powder metallurgy method. The composite has a composition of Mg₄₉Zn₄₉Ca₁Mn₁ (wt.%) in which the compositional ratio between Mg and Zn was chosen to be near eutectic Mg-Zn composition. The synthesis method was designed to avoid/minimize intermetallic formation by using processing temperatures lower than the Mg-Zn binary eutectic temperature (~ 340 °C). The synthesis process involved extrusion of green compacts at two different temperatures, 150 °C and 200 °C, without sintering. Extrusion was performed directly on the green compacts as well as on the compacts soaked at temperatures of 150 °C and 200 °C, respectively. Microstructure and mechanical properties of the materials synthesized under various processing conditions were investigated. Effect of extrusion temperature as well as soaking temperature on the materials' properties were also evaluated in details and different properties showed an optimum under different conditions. All the synthesized materials showed no evidence of intermetallic formation which was confirmed by SEM/EDS, XRD, and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The study establishes development of unconventional metal-(metal + ceramic) eco-friendly composites and provides important insight into realizing certain properties without using sintering step thus to minimize the energy consumption of the process. The study also highlights the use of magnesium turnings (recyclability) to develop advanced materials.