Magnesium nanocomposites, with nano-scale ceramic reinforcements, have attracted a great deal of attention for several engineering and biomedical applications in the recent past. In this work, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, Fe3O4, with their unique magnetic properties and the ability of being bio-compatible and non-toxic, are reinforced to magnesium to form Mg/(1, 2, and 3 wt %) Fe3O4 nanocomposites. These nanocomposites were fabricated using the conventional disintegrated melt deposition (DMD) technique followed by extrusion. Further, the materials were also processed using the novel turning-induced-deformation technique where the chips from turning process are collected, cold compacted, and hot extruded. The materials processed via the two techniques were compared in terms of microstructure and properties. Overall, the Mg/Fe3O4 nanocomposites, processed via both routes, exhibited a superior property profile. Further, the turning-induced deformation method showed promising results in terms of improved properties of the nanocomposites and serves as a great route for the recycling of metallic materials.

In recent times, an alternative synthesis pathway involving severe plastic deformation for Mg-based materials has been explored involving the generation of turnings according to a set of machining parameters and cold compaction into billets followed by hot extrusion. This is known as the turning induced deformation (TID) method and has shown potential to alter the properties of resulting Mg-based materials for the better, not to mention economic benefits arising from this processing method. This work summarizes exploratory efforts involving this method for synthesis of Mg-based materials. The TID method resulted in overall superior properties compared to conventional processing methods, while two distinct parameters (high depth of cut and low cutting speed) were found to have significant positive influence on the final material properties, and as such are considered to be suitable basis on which further exploratory work in this field may be conducted.

A new and novel method of synthesising porous Mg materials has been explored utilising a variant of a processing method previously used for the synthesis of dense Mg materials, namely the turning-induced deformation (TID) method combined with sintering. It was found that the Mg materials synthesised possessed comparable properties to previously-synthesised porous Mg materials in the literature while subsequent sintering resulted in a more consistent mechanical response, with microwave sintering showing the most promise. The materials were also found to possess mechanical response within the range of the human cancellous bone, and when reinforced with biocompatible silica nanoparticles, presented the most optimal combination of mechanical properties for potential use as biodegradable implants due to most similarity with cancellous bone properties.