Magnesium alloys with rare-earth elements: Research trends applications, and future prospect

• Manuscript presents a complete overview of the 15+ years journey of magnesium and its alloys, covering breakthrough discoveries and cutting-edge applications. • This article discusses the progress in rare-earth magnesium alloys, emphasizing its potential to address traditional, historical prospect, and fundamental to advanced applications. • Article presents detail alloying techniques, surface properties, doping methodologies, and the optimal composition of rare-earth elements required to achieve tailored thermo-mechanical properties. • Besides discussing the applicative domain of these alloys, article insights and opinions related to the future perspective is also provided. Likewise, simple explanations and several schematic diagrams have been used for better understandings. • Manuscript incorporates nearly 275 references, comprising high-ranked and crucial research articles related to magnesium and its alloys published since the early 1990s. Therefore, it can serve as an essential and authoritative bibliographic resource for researchers engaged in this domain. Magnesium alloys have emerged as promising light weight materials due to their low density, high specific strength, excellent machinability, and superior damping capacity, making them ideal for aerospace, automotive, and electronics applications. However, broader use of magnesium alloys is limited by poor thermo-mechanical performance, corrosion susceptibility, and low formability at room temperature. The addition of rare-earth elements such as gadolinium, yttrium, and neodymium has meaningfully improved these limitations, enhancing the overall performance of magnesium alloys. This review highlights recent advancements in rare-earth magnesium alloys, focusing on their improved thermo-mechanical properties, microstructural evolution, crystallization behavior, and texture development. Herein, strengthening mechanisms associated with rare-earth additions are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the article explores growing relevance of these alloys in advanced applications, including biomedical implants, IoT devices, aerospace structures, defense systems, and general engineering. With their enhanced mechanical and functional properties, rare-earth magnesium alloys represent a new generation of high-performance, functional materials poised to drive innovation across multiple technology sectors.