U-Fe-Al metallic glasses with superior glass forming ability and corrosion resistance

Abstract

U-Fe-based ternary alloys have showed weaker glass forming ability (GFA) than U-Co-based ones, although U-Fe is a better base glass system than U-Co. To solve this puzzling point, the present work was aimed to study the formation of U-Fe-Al metallic glasses (MGs) together with their crystallization and corrosive properties. Through melt-spinning, the U-Fe-Al alloys designed by introducing Al to U-Fe alloys in the eutectic zone formed fully glassy phase in a large composition range. Among them, U60Fe27.5Al12.5 is the best glass former having the maximum Tg, Tg/Tm and supercooled liquid region of 635K, 0.612 and 48K, respectively. Its GFA exceeds other known U-based MGs including the U-Co-based ones. Moreover, compared with some U-Co-based MGs and crystalline uranium materials, U60Fe27.5Al12.5 MG also displayed more excellent anti-corrosive performance in neutral solution, indicating alluring application prospect in nuclear-related fields. However, these U-Fe-Al MGs exhibited very low Tg/TL values, which is essentially owing to that their compositions may be hypoeutectic and lie on the side of the Fe2U-typed eutectic phase with melting point much higher than the eutectic temperature.