Effects of precipitates and its interface on thermal conductivity of Mg–12Gd alloy during aging treatment

How to simultaneously improve the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of Mg alloys is an interesting and important issue topic. In the present study, the effect of aging treatment on the thermal conductivity and micro-hardness of Mg–12Gd alloy was investigated. Results indicated that the thermal conductivity and micro-hardness of the alloy could be significantly improved by aging treatment, and Mg–12Gd alloy exhibited a typical aging hardening response with the increasing aging time. At the early stage of aging (4 h), a large number of fine particles precipitated from α-Mg matrix, but thermal conductivity of alloy increased a little, which was attributed to the coherent interface hindering the increase of thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity increased to the peak value of 75.7 W/(m·K) at the aging time of 300 h, which was about 2.17 times that of as-solutionized alloy. The huge increment in the thermal conductivity of as-aged Mg–12Gd alloy was related to the precipitation of particles and the incoherent interface between precipitates and α-Mg matrix.