ABSTRACT
Magnesium alloys are promising structural materials for aerospace, defense, and automotive industries in view of their light weight. Variety of advanced tailor-made magnesium alloys are constantly being developed to meet specific applications and are being pursued by researchers. These state-of-the-art alloys necessitate a thorough understanding of the microstructure-property correlation for their application in various fields. Microstructure of these materials is the heart of the tetrahedron bonding structure, processing, properties and applications. This contribution presents the detailed metallography of magnesium alloys right from the specimen preparation to analysis and interpretation of the microstructure obtained through optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopies. Detailed methodology to be adopted for obtaining a scratch-free surface in soft magnesium alloys has been described along with a list of etchants to delineate the microstructures for optical microscopic examination. An atlas of microstructures containing optical photographs, scanning electron microstructures and transmission electron micrographs of several, commercial and experimental magnesium alloys in various conditions have been included in this atlas.
