Materials and Design 84 (2015) 4852

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmad

Electrical and thermal conductivity in Mg5Sn Alloy at different

aging status
Chunming Wang a, Zhiming Cui b, Hongmei Liu c, Yungui Chen a,b,, Wucheng Ding a, Sufen Xiao a
a
b
c

College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 April 2015
Received in revised form 14 June 2015
Accepted 15 June 2015
Available online 26 June 2015
Keywords:
MgSn alloy
Aging treatment
Microstructure
Electrical conductivity
Thermal conductivity

a b s t r a c t
The electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and its relationship with the microstructure in Mg5Sn alloy
aged at 513 K for different aging times were investigated systematically in this paper. The results show that
the electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity obviously increase with the increasing aging time, and its
values increase from 10.25 106 Sm1 to 13.7 106 Sm1, 87.5 Wm1K1 to 122 Wm1K1 after
aging treatment for 120 h, respectively. Meanwhile, it is found that there exist quite different relationships between unit cell volume and thermal conductivity in early and later aging stages.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Magnesium alloys are the lightest weight commercially available
structural materials, which have high specic strength and stiffness,
good thermal and electrical conductivity [1,2]. Therefore, magnesium
alloys are attractive candidates for heat dissipation materials in LED
etc., compared with aluminum alloys. The MgSn alloys, known as a
typical precipitation hardening system [3], have great potential applications in heat dissipation materials at elevated temperatures (b423 K)
due to the Mg2Sn phase, which has a high melting temperature of
1043 K [46]. For MgSn alloys, most researchers have given more attention to the improvement of aging hardening on the performance of
the alloys [710]. Thermal conductivity is an important thermophysical
property for heat dissipation materials. The higher the thermal conductivity, the more effective the cooling is [11]. Some researchers have
studied the thermal conductivity of as-cast and as-extruded Mg-based
alloys [1118]. A. Rudajevova et al. have found that thermal conductivity is sensitive to the microstructure of as-cast Mg alloys [1114]. M.Y.
Zheng et al. recently have studied the thermal conductivity of as-cast
and as-extruded MgAl/Zn alloys [15,16] and found that the anisotropy
of thermal conductivity resulted from microstructure anisotropy
because of the texture formed during extrusion [17]. The phase
transformation and the different effects of Zn and Al on the thermal/
Corresponding author at: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan
University, Chengdu 610065, China.
E-mail address: ygchen60@aliyun.com (Y. Chen).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2015.06.110
0264-1275/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

electrical conductivity have also been studied by F.S. Pan et al. [18]. It
is well known that the conductivity of the aging-treated materials is
better than that of as-cast and solution-treated materials. This is mainly
due to the precipitation of the dissolved elements out of the solutions.
However, few papers pay attention to the thermal properties of aged
Mg-based alloys, especially the relationship between the precipitates
and thermal conductivity. The paper mainly focuses on the effects of
the aging status on the electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity
of aged MgSn alloys, and tries to discuss the relationship between the
precipitates and thermal conductivity for different aging status.
2. Experimental
The Mg5 wt.% Sn alloys were prepared from high purity Mg
(99.95%) and pure Sn (99.98%), melted in a low-carbon steel crucible
under the protection of N2 + SF6 mixed gas. The melt was stirred to
ensure homogeneity and held at 993 K for about 30 min, and then
cast in steel molds preheated up to 533 K. The specimens for electrical
and thermal conductivity measurement were cut into slices with
14.0 mm 14.0 mm 3.0 mm and discs with a diameter of 12.7 mm
and a thickness of 2.88 mm, respectively. The samples were solution
treated for 28 h at 733 K and quenched into water at room temperature.
Subsequently, the specimens were isothermally aged at 513 K for different times.
The samples for microstructural characterization were polished
and etched with a solution of 4 vol.% nital. The microstructures and
phase characterizations were investigated by scanning electron

C. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 84 (2015) 4852

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of Mg5Sn alloys with different aging times at 513 K, (a) 0 h, (b) 6 h,
(c) 20 h, (d) 64 h, and (e) 120 h.

Table 1
The lattice parameters of -Mg phase of the aged Mg5Sn alloys.
Aging time,
h

0
6
20
64
120

Lattice parameters,
nm
a

0.3211
0.3210
0.3208
0.3208
0.3207

0.5209
0.5208
0.5207
0.5205
0.5203

using transmission electron microscopy (TEM, JEM-2010UHR)

equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDS, Noran Vantage DS)
operating at 200 kV. The foils were prepared by ion-milling using
the Precision Ion Polishing System (GATAN691). The age hardening
responses were measured by the Vickers hardness tester (HVS-1000)
under a load of 25 g.
The electrical conductivity of the aging samples was measured by an
eddy-current device (FIRST FD-101) at room temperature. The probe
(probe diameter, : 8 mm) of the device was put in the smooth surface
of the samples, and led to eddy current by forming the loop. According
to the International Annealed Copper Standard (% IACS) with a 1% accuracy, the range of electrical conductivity measurements was from
6.9% IACS (4.0 MSm 1) to 110% IACS (64 MSm 1). The thermal
diffusivity was measured at room temperature (298 K) with a
NETZSCH model LFA447 Flash Analyzer. The surface of the specimen
discs was blackened by carbon-coating in order to improve the absorption of the light pulse. The density of the samples at room temperature
was determined by the Archimedes method. The specic heat capacity
of the alloy was calculated using the NeumannKopp rule [19,20].
Thus, the thermal conductivity () of the samples was calculated by
the following equation [21]:
c

Volume,
nm3

Mg2Sn,
vol. %

7.752 103
7.746 103
7.735 103
7.732 103
7.724 103

0.3
1.5
2.9

microscopy (SEM, JEOL, JSM-6490LV) and X-ray diffraction (XRD,

DanDongFangYuan, DX-2600) with Cu K radiation, respectively.
The precipitate microstructures after aging treatment were observed

49

where is the thermal conductivity, is the thermal diffusivity, is the

density and c is the specic heat capacity.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. The microstructure of aged Mg5Sn alloy
The XRD patterns of Mg5Sn alloys with different aging times at
513 K are shown in Fig. 1. According to the indexed results, there are
only -Mg (PDF: No. 35-0821) and Mg2Sn (PDF: No. 07-0274) phases
in aged Mg5Sn alloy, and the diffraction peak intensities of the

Fig. 2. SEM images of Mg5Sn alloys after aging treatment for 6 h (a), 20 h (b), 64 h (c) and 120 h (b) at 513 K.

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C. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 84 (2015) 4852

Fig. 3. Bright-eld TEM micrographs of aged Mg5Sn alloys along the [0001] zone at 513 K for 2 h (a) and 16 h (b).

Mg2Sn phase gradually increase with the increasing aging time, indicating that the amount of Mg2Sn increases with aging time increasing.
Meanwhile, the dependence of the lattice parameters of the -Mg
phase on different aging times is given in Table 1. The values of a and
c of the lattice parameters of -Mg phase gradually decrease with the
increasing aging time. The values of a and c of the lattice parameters
of pure Mg are 0.3202 nm and 0.5199 nm, respectively, and the value
of lattice volume is 7.694 103 nm3 [22]. The lattice parameters (a,
c) of -Mg in Mg5Sn alloy are closer to pure Mg and the lattice volume
decreases from 7.752 103 nm3 to 7.724 103 nm3 after a 120 h
aging treatment. Meanwhile, the volume fraction of the Mg2Sn phase
is calculated by the Rietveld renement, the value of the Mg2Sn phase
ranges from 0 vol.% to 2.9 vol.% at different aging times.
Fig. 2 shows the SEM images of Mg5Sn alloys after aging treatment
for 6 h, 20 h, 64 h and 120 h at 513 K, respectively. As can be seen from
Fig. 2, the amount of the Mg2Sn phase increases with the increase of
aging time, and the size of Mg2Sn particles also grows gradually,
which can be obviously seen in Fig. 2(c, d). The above results are consistent with Fig. 1. To observe further the morphology of precipitates in a
short time after aging treatment, the bright-led TEM micrographs of
aged Mg5Sn alloys for 2 h (a) and 16 h (b) are shown in Fig. 3. As can
be seen from Fig. 3, the precipitates are not observed in Fig. 3(a), and it
is found that the morphology of the precipitates tends to be rod- and
plate-shaped in Fig. 3(b), the results are consistent with Refs. [8,9].

alloy increases with the increasing aging time. The values of electrical
conductivity of aged Mg5Sn alloys increase from 10.25 106 Sm1
for aging treatment for 0 h to 13.7 106 Sm1 for aging treatment
for 120 h. Meanwhile, the growth rate of the electrical conductivity becomes slower with aging time increasing, suggesting that the
desolventizing driving force of Sn atoms in the -Mg matrix decreases.
The measured thermal diffusivity of Mg5Sn alloys after different
aging times is shown in Fig. 5. According to the NeumannKopp rule,
the corresponding specic heat capacity (Cp) is shown as the following
[20]:
C p T

C p;i T xi

Fig. 4 shows the electrical conductivity of Mg5Sn alloy with different aging times at 513 K. The electrical conductivity in aged Mg5Sn

where Cp,i is the specic heat capacity of the i pure component; xi is the
atomic ratio of the i pure component. The specic heat capacity of the
alloy is acquired by Eq. (2), and the value is 1.026 Jg1K1 at room
temperature where the values of specic heat capacity are plugged in,
24.9 JK 1mol 1 for Mg and 26.989 JK 1mol 1 for Sn at 298 K
[23]. It is thought that the specic heat capacity of the alloys is almost
unchanged through the NeumannKopp rule due to the invariable
alloy composition. Therefore, it is negligible that the different aging
times have an inuence on the specic heat capacity. According to
Eq. (1), the thermal conductivity of the samples is calculated at room
temperature by introducing the values of density (1.818 gcm 3),
specic heat capacity (1.026 Jg 1K 1) and thermal diffusivity in
Fig. 5, which is also shown in Fig. 5. As can be seen from Fig. 5, the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity increase with the aging time
increasing. The thermal conductivity of aged Mg5Sn alloys increases
from 87.5 Wm1K 1 for aging 0 h to 122 Wm1K 1 for aging
120 h. The thermal conductivity increases by 39%, compared with Mg

Fig. 4. Electrical conductivity of Mg5Sn alloy after different aging times at 513 K.

Fig. 5. Thermal diffusivity and conductivity of Mg5Sn alloys after different aging times at
513 K.

3.2. Electrical and thermal conductivity of aged Mg5Sn alloy

C. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 84 (2015) 4852

51

of the thermal conductivity of Mg5Sn alloys improves. Meanwhile, it

is implied that the lattice distortion has signicant inuences on the thermal conductivity compared with the precipitates in Mg alloys.
3.3. The relationship between the microstructure and thermal conductivity
in aged Mg5Sn alloys
To elucidate the effect of different aging times on the thermal
conductivity of the -Mg matrix, the thermal conductivity of the Mg matrix (m) is calculated simply by the Maxwell model [24]. The
Maxwell model for the thermal conductivity () of aged Mg5Sn alloys
can be written in the following form:

 
3
2

d
2V d d 1
2
6
7
m
m
7

m 6
4 
5
d
d
1
2
Vd
m
m

Fig. 6. The relationship between the unit cell volume and thermal conductivity of -Mg.

5Sn alloys after solution treatment. The Mg2Sn precipitates increase

with the increasing aging time, as shown Figs. 1 and 2. It is suggested
that the Sn solute atoms in Mg matrix decrease gradually, which makes
the lattice parameters of -Mg tend to be closer to pure Mg, and weakens
the lattice distortion of the -Mg matrix, and result in the improvement

where m is the thermal conductivity of the continuous matrix (-Mg

matrix at different aging times), d is the thermal conductivity of
uniformly distributed dispersions (Mg2Sn precipitates), and Vd is the
volume fraction of dispersions (Mg2Sn particle). According to the results
about the total thermal conductivity () and the volume fraction of
Mg2Sn phases (Vd), the thermal conductivity of the -Mg matrix (m)
is acquired by Eq. (3) at different aging times, where the thermal
conductivity of Mg2Sn is 6.04 Wm1K1 [25].
The relationship between the unit cell volume of -Mg and the
thermal conductivity (m) of -Mg is shown in Fig. 6. The thermal
conductivity (m) increases with the unit cell volume of -Mg

Fig. 7. The HRTEM image of the interface between rod-shaped morphology (a), plate-shaped morphology (d) and -Mg matrix at 513 K for 16 h aging, HRTEM image by the FFT transform
(b), the edge dislocation of the interface between rod-shaped precipitates and -Mg matrix (c).

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C. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 84 (2015) 4852

decreasing. When the aging time ranges from 20 h to 120 h, the volume
shrinkage of unit cell is about 0.14%, the thermal conductivity (m)
increases by 36.4% correspondingly, and namely, the thermal conductivity (m) increases by 26% per shrinkage of thousandth. When the
aging time ranges from 0 h to 20 h, the volume shrinkage of unit cell
is about 0.21%, the thermal conductivity (m) only increases by 8.9%
correspondingly, and namely, the thermal conductivity (m) increases
by 4.2% per shrinkage of thousandth. Meanwhile, the variation in
Vickers hardness (HV0.25) as a function of aging time at 513 K is
shown in the inset of Fig. 6. The hardness increases with the increasing
aging time, and reaches the peak hardness for 16 h.
Combined with the dependence of Vickers hardness on aging time in
Fig. 6, it may imply that the aging mechanism is different after aging treatment for 16 h, which may result from the different slope of thermal
conductivity aged Mg5Sn alloys after aging treatment for 20 h. Henes
et al. have reported that the Mg2Sn in the binary MgSn alloy has the
orientation relationships of (0001)(110) , [1120][001] and
(0001)(110), [1120][111], at an aging temperature of 403 to
473 K and (0001)(111), [1120][112] and (0001)(111),
[1120][101] at an aging temperature of 473 to 573 K [26]. In general,
the distortion caused by the orientation relationship is more serious
than that caused by an incoherent relationship, due to the interface relationship shifts from the coherent towards the incoherent with the increasing aging time. Therefore, the HV hardness corresponding to the
distortion energy caused by the orientation relationship at 513 K increases with aging time increasing until the peak and then drops [27]. According to the morphology of aged-Mg5Sn alloy for 16 h in Fig. 3(b), the
HRTEM micrograph is showed in Fig. 7, including the HRTEM image of the
interface between rod-shaped morphology (a), plate-shaped morphology
(d) and -Mg matrix at 513 K for aging 16 h. The rod-shaped precipitates
are semi-coherent with the -Mg matrix along the [220] and [101] directions in Fig. 7(a). Fig. 7(b) shows the HRTEM image by the FFT transformed with a series of parallel edge dislocation (Fig. 7(c)).
Fig. 7(d) shows the incoherent interface between the plate-shaped precipitates and -Mg matrix, which has a transition layer of disorder. It is
implied that the nanoscale Mg2Sn particles distributed homogeneously
in the -Mg matrix are coherent with the -Mg matrix before the peak
hardness, which leads to the relatively serious lattice distortion of the
-Mg matrix around the Mg2Sn particles, and has an obvious inuence
on the thermal conductivity of Mg5Sn alloys. After the peak hardness,
the Mg2Sn particles grow gradually in size and are incoherent with Mg, which weakens the distortion of the -Mg matrix around the
Mg2Sn particles, so the thermal conductivity increases obviously.
4. Conclusions
1). The electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of Mg5Sn alloys
aged at 513 K increase with the increasing aging time. The value of
which increases from 10.25 106 Sm1 to 13.7 106 Sm1,
87.5 Wm1K1 to 122 Wm1K1 after aging 120 h, respectively.
2). The thermal conductivity and the amount of precipitate Mg2Sn
increase with the increasing aging time. It is implied that the lattice
distortion has a signicant inuence on the thermal conductivity,
compared with the precipitates in Mg alloys.

3). The coherent relationship of Mg2Sn precipitates with the -Mg

matrix has an obvious inuence on the thermal conductivity of the
-Mg matrix.
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