Amorphous alloys were first developed over 40 years ago and found applications as magnetic core or reinforcement added to other materials. The scope of applications is limited due to the small thickness in the region of only tens of microns. The research effort in the past two decades, mainly pioneered by a Japanese- and a US-group of scientists, has substantially relaxed this size constrain. Some bulk metallic glasses can have tensile strength up to 3000 MPa with good corrosion resistance, reasonable toughness, low internal friction and good processability. Bulk metallic glasses are now being used in consumer electronic industries, sporting goods industries, etc. In this paper, the authors reviewed the recent development of new alloy systems of bulk metallic glasses. The properties and processing technologies relevant to the industrial applications of these alloys are also discussed here. The behaviors of bulk metallic glasses under extreme conditions such as high pressure and low temperature are especially addressed in this review. In order that the scope of applications can be broadened, the understanding of the glass-forming criteria is important for the design of new alloy systems and also the processing techniques.

https://www.tcd.ie/Physics/people/Graham.Cross/SF%20Poster%202011/Shek-MaterSciEng04-Bulk%20Metallic%20Glasses.pdf

Bulk metallic glasses

A microscopic mechanism for steady state inhomogeneous flow in metallic glasses

The following article is based on the MRS Medal talk presented by William L. Johnson at the 1998 MRS Fall Meeting on December 2, 1998. The MRS Medal is awarded for a specific outstanding recent discovery or advancement that has a major impact on the progress of a materials-related field. Johnson received the honor for his development of bulk metallic glass-forming alloys, the fundamental understanding of the thermodynamics and kinetics that control glass formation and crystallization of glass-forming liquids, and the application of these materials in engineering.The development of bulk glass-forming metallic alloys has led to interesting advances in the science of liquid metals. This article begins with brief remarks about the history and background of the field, then follows with a discussion of multicomponent glass-forming alloys and deep eutectics, the chemical constitution of these new alloys, and how they differ from metallic glasses of a decade ago or earlier. Recent studies of deeply undercooled liquid alloys and the insights made possible by their exceptional stability with respect to crystallization will then be discussed. Advances in this area will be illustrated by several examples. The article then describes some of the physical and specific mechanical properties of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), and concludes with some interesting potential applications.The first liquid-metal alloy vitrified by cooling from the molten state to the glass transition was Au-Si, as reported by Duwez at Caltech in 1960. Duwez made this discovery as a result of developing rapid quenching techniques for chilling metallic liquids at very high rates of 105–106 K/s.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0883769400053252

Bulk Glass-Forming Metallic Alloys: Science and Technology

Recent development and application products of bulk glassy alloys

The free-volume model, which has been useful for describing the behavior of the viscosity $\ensuremath{\eta}$ of dense liquids and glasses, is extended to account for their thermodynamic behavior as well. Experimental results for the heat capacity ${C}_{p}$ and the volume $\overline{v}$ show that the system falls out of complete, metastable thermodynamic equilibrium at the glass transition temperature ${T}_{g}$. As a first step in understanding these universal phenomena, a theory of the underlying metastable phase, the amorphous phase, is developed. Recent molecular-dynamic calculations demonstrating the existence of a cellular structure in liquids and the properties of the local free energy of the molecular cells permit us to formulate more precisely and justify in more detail the standard free-volume model. In particular, it is possible to define the free volume and distinguish solid-like and liquidlike cells. This leads to the introduction of percolation theory, which is used to describe the gradual development of the communal entropy of the amorphous phase. We then determine the probability distribution of the cellular volume as a function of the fraction of liquidlike cells, $p$. The equilibrium liquid-glass transition is associated with the increase of $p$ with temperature. This occurs via a phase transition which is most probably first order. The results of our theory give a generalized equation for the viscosity which agrees accurately with experimental results at all temperatures. Results for ${C}_{p}$ and $\overline{v}$ are also obtained. This equilibrium theory can provide the basis for a relaxation theory of the kinetic effects observed around and below ${T}_{g}$. The relationship between the entropy theory and the free-volume model is also clarified.

H.S Chen

Papers

Formation, stability and structure of palladium-silicon based alloy glasses

The specific heat of tin and gallium in their stable and undercooled pure liquid states

Formation and stability of amorphous alloys of Au-Ge-Si