Ce–Cu–Fe–Al–Si Bulk Metallic Glass Alloys With High Glass Forming Ability

Abstract

New Ce-Cu-Fe-Al-Si bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with high glass formation ability (GFA) and large supercooled liquid regions (ΔT x , ΔT x = T x -T g ) were developed. Investigation shows that the addition of Fe and Si elements is very effective to improve the glass formation ability of Ce-based BMGs. For an optimizing composition, the ΔT x value is 95 K and the alloy can be prepared into bulk metallic glass rods with the diameters of at least 10mm. In the Ce-Cu-Al-Fe alloys, the glass transition temperature (Tg), crystallization temperature (T x ) and ΔT x increase with increasing Fe content. The reduced glass transition temperature (T r g = T g /T l ) of the present BMG system is about 0.5-0.6 and is much lower than that of other metal base BMG systems with high GFA. Compressive fracture strength (σ f ) and Young's modulus (E) of the Ce-Cu-Al-Fe BMGs are ∼930 MPa and ∼45 GPa, respectively, and increase with increasing Fe content.