Russia and South Korea Jointly Develop a New Low-Cost Magnesium Alloy


  The National University of Science and Technology MISIS in Russia and South Korea’s LG Corporation have jointly developed a new magnesium alloy for thermal-management systems that, compared with aluminum alloys, can reduce the weight of such systems by one-third while maintaining equivalent cooling efficiency. Researchers note that magnesium alloys have long been plagued by flammability; conventional approaches involve adding rare-earth elements such as neodymium and lanthanum to raise the ignition point, but this method is costly. The new magnesium alloy, by contrast, achieves a similar increase in ignition temperature through the addition of silicon, zinc, calcium, zirconium, and other elements—while at a lower cost. The research team is currently exploring novel alloy compositions to simultaneously attain high strength, excellent corrosion resistance, low cost, and superior thermal conductivity.