Simultaneously improving strength and corrosion resistance of additively manufactured Mg-Gd-Zr alloy by in-situ alloying with Al

• In-situ alloying is employed for composition modification of LPBF-Mg alloy. • Addition of Al significantly refines the grains and secondary phases. • Corrosion resistance of LPBF-G10K alloy is lower than its cast counterpart. • Strength and corrosion resistance synchronously increase with Al content. Additive manufacturing of magnesium (Mg) alloy components with intricate geometries via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) offers significant advantages for lightweight engineering applications. However, as a commonly issue of Mg alloys, the corrosion resistance of LPBF-Mg alloys is even worse than their cast and deformed counterparts. In-situ alloying provides a rapid pathway for composition modification tailored for the LPBF process. In this study, aluminum (Al) is introduced through in-situ alloying to prepare Mg-10Gd-xAl-Zr (GA10xK, x = 0.5, 1, 2 wt. %) alloys using blended Mg-10Gd-Zr and Mg-15Al powders. By employing a lower scanning speed during LPBF, a uniform distribution of Al throughout the as-built components is achieved. The increase in Al content leads to the progressive enhancement in grain refinement and the transformation of secondary phases from Mg 3 Gd to Al 2 Gd with a significant reduction in size and a notable increase in number density. These microstructural transformations yield a synchronous enhancement in strength and corrosion resistance with increasing Al content. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the GA102K alloy reach 328 MPa and 350 MPa, respectively, with a minimized corrosion rate of 0.787 mm/yr., surpassing the mechanical and corrosion performance of both LPBF and semi-continuous cast G10K alloys.