The relationship of work function stacking fault energy in magnesium and magnesium alloys

The aim of this thesis work was to investigate the electronic interactions of the Group 2A elements of the periodic table with Mg through the dilute solid solutions in the binary systems of Mg-Ca, Mg Sr and Mg-Ba. This investigation was undertaken via 'work Function' measurements as a property directly affected by interatomic bond types, i.e. the electronic structure, as well as nanoindentation measurements, and also incorporating the Stacking Fault Energy (SFE) values present in the literature. For the completeness of the study, the microstructures of some pure magnesium crystals and the binary alloys have also been characterized, therefore when necessary TEM, SEM-EDS examinations were undertaken. The SFE values gathered from the literature are based on the computed ab initio (First Principles) results. It is important to, at least qualitatively, correlate those important calculated values with the results of some experimental measurement techniques. This is because those computational methods are based on zero Kelvin, and also incorporating a number of assumptions as well as simple atomic models that involves a limited number of atoms and a single foreign atom. When it comes to the systems of multi-atomic species the quantum calculations do not yet seem feasible. This, constitutes an impediment when going from dilute and binary systems to poly-atomic systems. Whereas, as asserted by this investigation, if the results of practical measurement techniques can be qualitatively correlated with those of the computational methods, it can be possible to evaluate the electronic structures in alloys, starting from binary systems, going to ternary and then poly-atomic systems. Our investigation, which started with the aforementioned perspective, has shown that such a qualitative correlation is possible. After all, the SFE values are not treated as absolute values but rather gain importance and become useful in comparative investigations when assessing the properties of alloys at a fundamental level, i.e., free electron density distributions. Therefore, it seems possible to use the principles of 'electronic metallurgy' in developing poly-atomic alloy systems.