Abstract
Bulk metallic glass (BMG) has received consistent attention from the research community owing to its superior physical and mechanical properties. Modulating and controlling the surface functionalities of BMG can be more interesting for the surface engineering community and will render more practical applications. In this work, a facile laser-based surface texturing technique is presented to modulate and control the surface functionalities (i.e., wettability and hardness) of Zr-based BMG. Laser surface texturing was first utilized to create periodic surface structures, and heat treatment was subsequently employed to control the surface chemistry. The experimental results indicate that the laser textured BMG surface became superhydrophilic immediately upon laser texturing, and it turned superhydrophobic after heat treatment. Through surface morphology and chemistry analyses, it was confirmed that the wettability transition could be ascribed to the combined effects of laser-induced periodic surface structure and controllable surface chemistry. In the meantime, the microhardness of the BMG surface has been remarkably increased as a result of laser surface texturing. The facile laser-based technique developed in this work has shown its effectiveness in modification and control of the surface functionalities for BMG, and it is expected to endow more useful applications.
Highlights
Bulk metallic glass (BMG) has received considerable attention from the research community during the past several decades since its first discovery in the 1990s, mainly owing to its superior mechanical and physical properties [1], including high values of yield strength [2], high hardness [3], relatively low Young’s modulus [4], good corrosion and wear resistance [5], as well as excellent magnetic properties [6]
The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs with high magnification indicate that there have been some sub-micron or nano-scale particles covered on the micro-bulge structures, which can be mainly attributed to the ejection and deposition of nanoparticles during the laser-material interaction
Farasi et al [48] pointed out that the surface chemical composition of metallic materials can be modified via material vaporization and oxidation during laser surface texturing, and Ngo et al [31,49] believed that the increase in carbon content during heat treat
Summary
Bulk metallic glass (BMG) has received considerable attention from the research community during the past several decades since its first discovery in the 1990s, mainly owing to its superior mechanical and physical properties [1], including high values of yield strength [2], high hardness [3], relatively low Young’s modulus [4], good corrosion and wear resistance [5], as well as excellent magnetic properties [6]. Jiao et al developed a nanosecond laser texturing technique to fabricate periodic surface structures, including dimples and grooves on Zr-based BMG surfaces [37] They investigated the effect of laser surface texturing on the wettability [15] and cytocompatibility [38] of the BMG surfaces. The authors’ group has developed a facile nanosecond laser-based surface texturing method to achieve switchable wettability control of titanium alloy [36] In this work, this laser-based surface texturing technique was further extended to modulate surface wettability and hardness on the BMG substrate. It is expected that the developed technique could provide a viable solution for the surface modification of Zr-based metallic glass, rendering a series of applications in the industrial and biomedical fields
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