Ductile Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses by Controlling Heterogeneous Microstructure from Phase Competition Strategy

J L Cheng; J J Wang; J X Rui; Y L Yun; W Zhao; F Li

doi:10.3390/nano9121728

Ductile Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses by Controlling Heterogeneous Microstructure from Phase Competition Strategy

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 Dec 3;9(12):1728. doi: 10.3390/nano9121728.

Authors

J L Cheng^{1

2}, J J Wang¹, J X Rui¹, Y L Yun¹, W Zhao^{1

2

3}, F Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials and Application Technology, Nanjing 211167, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China.

Abstract

In this paper, we prepare the alloys of Zr_41.2Ti_13.8Cu_12.5Ni₁₀Be_22.5, Zr_44.4Ti_14.8Cu_14.3Ni_11.5Be₁₅, and Zr₃₈Ti_12.7Cu_9.6Ni_7.7Be₃₂ to show the effects of alloy composition on the inhomogeneity structures and mechanical properties of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). Compared with the best glass former Zr_41.2Ti_13.8Cu_12.5Ni₁₀Be_22.5, some nanoscale inhomogeneity structures can be induced by shifting the compositions towards a primary phase in the alloys of Zr_44.4Ti_14.8Cu_14.3Ni_11.5Be₁₅ and Zr₃₈Ti_12.7Cu_9.6Ni_7.7Be₃₂. The room temperature compression tests reveal that theBMGs contained nanoscale inhomogeneity structures exhibit superior mechanical properties with the high strength of 1780 MPa and especially a remarkable plastic strain of over 9%. These findings provide a new perspective to enhance the ductility of BMGs by introducing nanoscale inhomogeneity structures based on the phase competition strategy.

Keywords: amorphous materials; deformation and fracture; ductility; phase competition.

Grants and funding

BK20180106/Excellent Youth Foundation of Jiangsu Scientific Committee