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Potential of widespread industrial applications of magnesium has been realized in recent years. A variety of magnesium alloy matrix composites are now being studied for mechanical properties. Since magnesium is the lightest structural metal, it can replace aluminum in existing applications for further weight savings. This review presents an overview of hollow particle filled magnesium matrix syntactic composite foams. Fly ash cenospheres are the most commonly used hollow particles for such applications. Fly ash cenospheres primarily have alumino-silicate composition and contain a large number of trace elements, which makes it challenging to study the interfacial reactions and microstructure in these composites. Microstructures of commonly studied AZ and ZC series magnesium alloys and their syntactic foams are discussed. Although only a few studies are available on these materials because of the nascent stage of this field, a comparison with similar aluminum matrix syntactic foams has provided insight into the properties and weight saving potential of magnesium matrix composites. Analysis shows that the magnesium matrix syntactic foams have higher yield strength at the same level of density compared to most other metal matrix syntactic foams. The comparison can guide future work and set goals that need to be achieved through materials selection and processing method development.

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Research Summary metal matrix syntactic Foams How would you… …describe the overall signifi cance of this paper? The paper demonstrates: (1) the use of an environmentally hazardous waste material, fl y ash, in developing high performance composite materials; (2) the rate of compression can change the mechanical properties of composites; and (3) widespread use of aluminum and aluminum matrix composites in automobiles requires better understanding of material properties at different strain rates. …describe this work to a materials science and engineering professional with no experience in your technical specialty? This work discovers that the matrix alloy does not show dependence of mechanical properties on the rate of compression, but the composite does. Use of hollow particles as fi llers makes the material lighter and increases its energy absorption capabilities. …describe this work to a layperson? Aluminum is widely used in automobile and aircraft structures, which operate at high speeds. Safety in these structures can be improved by evaluating the material properties at high rates of compression. This work reports that the properties of aluminum matrix composites can be dependent on the rate of compression. Metal foams are expected to absorb energy under compression and improve safety. A porous composite material can provide insight into developing safer material systems for such applications.