A novel Mg-5Al-2Zn-2Sn alloy with high strength-ductility synergy fabricated via simple hot rolling and annealing treatment.

• A high strength and ductility AZT522 alloy was developed to compete with AZ91 alloy. • The AZT522 alloy had much finer as-cast microstructure than AZ91 alloy. • The AZT522 alloy exhibited superior rolling formability to the AZ91 alloy. • The annealed AZT522 alloy showed higher strength and ductility than AZ91 alloy. A novel Mg-5.34Al-2.23Zn-1.73Sn (wt%, AZT522 for short) alloy with high strength-ductility synergy was designed and fabricated via simple hot rolling and annealing treatment to compete with the commonly used Mg-9Al-1Zn-0.2Mn (wt%, AZ91) alloy. Different from the coarse microstructure of the as-cast AZ91 alloy, the as-cast AZT522 alloy has much finer microstructure, which consists of finer dendrites and smaller second phase particles. Hot rolling was carried out on the solution-treated alloys to effectively refine the microstructure and improve the mechanical properties. The results suggest that the AZT522 alloy shows better rolling formability. Then, the hot-rolled AZT522 alloy was annealed at the optimized parameter, i.e., 225 °C/1.5 h, leading to uniform fine grains with an average size of ~2.3 µm and numerous near-spherical precipitates (Mg 17 Al 12 and Mg 2 Sn) with a mean diameter of ~90 nm. Benefiting from the fine annealing microstructure, the novel AZT522 alloy finally exhibited high tensile properties at room temperature, i.e., ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of ~343 MPa, yield strength (YS) ~271 MPa, and elongation to failure (δ f) ~16%, which is a much better combination of strength and ductility than the annealed AZ91 alloy. This novel AZT522 alloy may provide a new insight to develop commercial high strength and ductility Mg alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]