Effects of Silicon addition on hardness and constituent phases of pure Magnesium synthesized by MM-SPS process

An attempt was to synthesize Magnesium (Mg)- Silicon (Si) alloys by mechanical alloying (MA)-spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Effects of Si addition and MA time on hardness and constituent phases were evaluated by hardness tests and X-ray diffraction. No solid-state reaction was observed in MA powder, but formation of Mg2Si was observed in the SPS material. Increasing Si addition increased the amount of Mg2Si and the coarsening of Mg grain size suppressed. The maximum hardness of 180 HV was obtained when 30 mass% Si was added, the powder was MA 6 h, the sintering temperature and time were 773 K and 10 min, respectively.