Simultaneous achievement of high thermal conductivity, high strength and formability in Mg-Zn-Ca-Zr sheet alloy

Lightweight magnesium alloys with good thermal conductance are in demand for structural components in portable devices. This work presents a strategy to achieve excellent thermal conductivity, room temperature (RT) formability and high strength in magnesium sheet alloys. We found that a Mg-1.6Zn-0.5Ca-0.4Zr alloy shows a substantial increase in thermal conductivity to over 130 W/(m center dot K) due to the reduced supersaturation of solute atoms in the matrix by the precipitation of Guinier-Preston (G.P.) zones while exhibiting excellent RT formability with a large Index Erichsen value of 8.1 mm, and a high yield strength of 227 MPa by peak aging treatment. IMPACT STATEMENT This work reports a superiority of heat treatable magnesium alloy in simultaneously achieving high thermal conductivity and excellent mechanical properties through quantitative analysis of the microstructure in atomic scale.