How can a minor element added to a binary amorphous alloy simultaneously improve the plasticity and glass-forming ability?

Novel Ti-based bulk metallic glasses with superior plastic yielding strength and corrosion resistance

“…It has been found in Zr-, Mg-and Cu-based BMGs, that Ag addition in the glassy alloy possibly promote the formation of icosahedral short-range orders in the supercooled melt, which raises the nucleation barrier for the formation of crystalline phases and increases the viscosity of the melt, thus can enhance the GFA of an alloy [26][27][28]. In this work, the reason for the enhanced GFA caused by Ag can be understood in two aspects.…”

Non-linear effects of initial melt temperatures on microstructures and mechanical properties during quenching process of liquid Cu46Zr54 alloy

“…How to establish the structure-property correlation has been an important central work of materials science and condensed matter physics. For metallic glass, how the internal structures influence their properties have gotten substantial progress in recent years [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. For a given BMG composition, its mechanical (both elastic and plastic) properties can be effected considerably by changing its topological and chemical local order, especially its processing history, such as adopting different annealing temperatures or different cooling rates during preparation processes [4,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

Effectiveness of hydrogen microalloying in bulk metallic glass design

“…In a similar manner, hydrogen microalloying appears to enhance packing density as revealed by changes in the positron annihilation lifetime component [15,40], commonly associated with more densely packed flow defects [41][42][43]. In analogy to Al-alloying to Cu-Zr metallic glass [44], hydrogen microalloying not only enhances short-range order at the atomic level, but also seems to affect medium-range order at the nanometer scale. Here minor additions of hydrogen are thought to generate a more even distribution of densely-packed clusters [44], reducing strain localization and hence improving the achievable malleability [18].…”

“…These atomic arrangements feature much stronger bonding than octahedrallike sites, which are occupied at larger hydrogen concentrations. The hydrogen diffusivity is thus more strongly reduced for small amounts of alloyed hydrogen [44]. In view of future BMG design, these findings imply that the processing route presented may be effectively employed to tailor the properties of BMGs where the base elements show strong hydrogen bonding.…”

“…In analogy to Al-alloying to Cu-Zr metallic glass [44], hydrogen microalloying not only enhances short-range order at the atomic level, but also seems to affect medium-range order at the nanometer scale. Here minor additions of hydrogen are thought to generate a more even distribution of densely-packed clusters [44], reducing strain localization and hence improving the achievable malleability [18].…”