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Understanding the Glass-forming Ability of Cu50Zr50 Alloys in Terms of a Metastable Eutectic

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Abstract

Interest in finding binary alloys that can form bulk metallic glasses has stimulated recent work on the Cu-Zr system, which is known to show glass formation over a wide composition range. This work focuses on copper mold casting of Cu50Zr50 (at.%), and it is shown that fully amorphous rods up to 2-mm diameter can be obtained. The primary intermetallic phase competing with glass formation on cooling is identified, and the glass-forming ability is interpreted in terms of a metastable eutectic involving this phase. Minor additions of aluminum increase the glass-forming ability: with addition of 4 at.% Al to Cu50Zr50, rods of at least 5-mm diameter can be cast fully amorphous. The improvement of glass-forming ability is related to suppression of the primary intermetallic phase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, People’s Republic of China

    W. H. Wang

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA

    J. J. Lewandowski

  3. Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK

    A. L. Greer

Authors
  1. W. H. Wang
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  2. J. J. Lewandowski
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  3. A. L. Greer
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Correspondence to W. H. Wang.

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Wang, W.H., Lewandowski, J.J. & Greer, A.L. Understanding the Glass-forming Ability of Cu50Zr50 Alloys in Terms of a Metastable Eutectic. Journal of Materials Research 20, 2307–2313 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2005.0302

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2005.0302

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