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Metallic glasses

Family traits

Nature Materials volume 11, pages 275–276 (2012)Cite this article

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The finding that metallic glasses inherit their elastic properties from solvent atoms leads to a new understanding of the complex relationship between glassy structure, deformation and mechanical properties.

The disordered atomic structure of metallic glasses gives rise to unique mechanical and physical properties such as strength and elasticity, and are being considered for a wide range of applications. However, to understand and ultimately control these properties, it is important to study their disordered structure. Seen on the macroscale, metallic glasses are isotropic and homogeneous. On the microscopic scale, however, it is clear the situation is far more complex. There is a short-range order on the atomic scale with clusters of solute atoms surrounded by a majority of solvent atoms. There is also a nanoscale medium-range order that can be modelled by highly structured superclusters consisting of interconnected smaller clusters1,2. Both short- and medium-range orders affect the properties of metallic glasses, but they are extremely difficult to distinguish. The way the atoms pack inside metallic glasses and the role the local atomic order plays in their deformation remains a mystery; our understanding of the glassy structure so far relies to a large extent on models and simulations. In one of the few experimental studies on this topic, Dong Ma and colleagues now show how the metallic glasses inherit the elastic moduli from their solvent components3.

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Figure 1: Comparison between elastic moduli of metallic glasses and their solvent metals.

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  1. Wei Hua Wang is in the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China,

    Wei Hua Wang

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  1. Wei Hua Wang
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Correspondence to Wei Hua Wang.

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Wang, W. Family traits. Nature Mater 11, 275–276 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3277

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