Microstructural, mechanical, tribological, and corrosion behavior of ultrafine bio-degradable Mg/CeO2 nanocomposites: Machine learning-based modeling and experiment

The present study investigated the microstructural, mechanical, tribological, and corrosion behavior of near-dense and low-volume fraction magnesium-cerium dioxide (Mg/CeO2) (x = 0.5, 1, and 1.5 vol.%) nanocomposites synthesized by in-situ hot extrusion assisted powder metallurgy (PM) process. Results showed a significant improvement in wear resistance for Mg/CeO2 nanocomposite compared to monolithic Mg at varied applied loads. Microindentation tests were performed to access the Vickers microhardness homogeneity along the extrusion direction. The corrosion analysis revealed that introducing ceria nanoparticles enhanced Mg’s corrosion resistance and expedited the development of an apatite layer on the surface, providing enhanced protection. A feedforward neural network and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network were also developed to characterize nanocomposites’ wear and corrosion behavior.