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Transformation-mediated ductility in CuZr-based bulk metallic glasses

Nature Materials volume 9, pages 473–477 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) generally fail in a brittle manner under uniaxial, quasistatic loading at room temperature1. The lack of plastic strain is a consequence of shear softening2, a phenomenon that originates from shear-induced dilation3 that causes plastic strain to be highly localized in shear bands. So far, significant tensile ductility has been reported only for microscopic samples of around 100 nm (ref. 4) as well as for high strain rates5, and so far no mechanisms are known, which could lead to work hardening and ductility in quasistatic tension in macroscopic BMG samples. In the present work we developed CuZr-based BMGs, which polymorphically precipitate nanocrystals during tensile deformation and subsequently these nanocrystals undergo twinning. The formation of such structural heterogeneities hampers shear band generation and results in macroscopically detectable plastic strain and work hardening. The precipitation of nanocrystals and their subsequent twinning can be understood in terms of a deformation-induced softening of the instantaneous shear modulus. This unique deformation mechanism is believed to be not just limited to CuZr-based BMGs but also to promote ductility in other BMGs.

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Figure 1: Room-temperature true stress–strain curves in tension and surface of the material after fracture.
Figure 2: Microstructure of an as-cast Cu46Zr46Al8 specimen.
Figure 3: Microstructure of a Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 specimen deformed to fracture.
Figure 4: Schematic of the deformation process in the CuZr-based alloys investigated.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank B. Bartusch, S. Donath, M. Frey, U. Wilke and H. Schulze for technical assistance, and H. Ehrenberg, H. P. Karnthaler, G. Liu, N. Mattern, J. D. Moore, S. Scudino, M. Stoica and T. G. Woodcock for stimulating discussions. S.P. acknowledges financial support granted by the programme ‘Promotionsförderung des Cusanuswerks’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFW Dresden, Institut für Komplexe Materialien, Helmholtzstraße 20, D-01069 Dresden, Germany

    S. Pauly, S. Gorantla, G. Wang, U. Kühn & J. Eckert

  2. TU Dresden, Institut für Werkstoffwissenschaft, D-01062 Dresden, Germany

    J. Eckert

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  1. S. Pauly
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Contributions

S.P. and J.E. designed experiments; S.P., S.G. and G.W. carried out experiments; S.P., S.G., G.W. and U.K. analysed data and S.P. and J.E. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to S. Pauly.

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Pauly, S., Gorantla, S., Wang, G. et al. Transformation-mediated ductility in CuZr-based bulk metallic glasses. Nature Mater 9, 473–477 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2767

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