Fabrication of Mg-based intermetallic compounds by liquid electromigration

In this study, we successfully produced the compound phase Mg ₂Ni by using the liquid electromigration (EM) method. The application of a high-density current flow through the Ni/molten Mg/Ni sandwich structure caused the Ni atoms in the molten Mg to electromigrate toward the anode interface to form a thick layer of compound Mg ₂Ni at the anode's molten Mg/Ni interface. The formation of the interfacial Mg ₂Ni compound was much larger than that which occurs in the no-current case. This implies that the growth of the interfacial Mg ₂Ni compound can be enhanced by current stressing. Remarkably, as can be seen from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the EM-grown Mg ₂Ni phase is shown to be indicative of texture in nature, that is, only one single peak [(110) plane] appears in the XRD diffraction pattern. This observation suggests that the formation of EM-grown Mg ₂Ni compound at the anode interface closely corresponds to the direction of electron flow.