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 10 mm. In the Ce–Cu–Al–Fe alloys, the glass transition temperature (T_g), crystallization temperature (T_x) and ΔT_x increase with increasing Fe content. The reduced glass transition temperature (T_rg=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.