Plasticity improvement of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses by adjusting oxygen content and cooling rate

Abstract

The poor plasticity of amorphous metal at room temperature has proved to be one of the biggest obstacles for its widespread application as structural components. In present study, the experimental samples were prepared by suction-casting and high vacuum die-casting with Zr54.6Ti13.8Cu9.3Ni5.8Be13.5Nb3 (at. %) to discuss the effect of the oxygen content and cooling rate on the plasticity of amorphous metal respectively. The results indicate that dendrite with appropriate dimension and fraction can be obtained by adjusting oxygen content so as to improve the plasticity of metallic glasses. Likewise, the appropriate cooling rate even above the critical cooling rate can also be quite effective to make the brittle metallic glasses obtain high plasticity.