In Situ Synthesis and Characterization of Zr-Based Amorphous Composite by Laser Direct Deposition

Zr-based bulk metallic glasses have attracted extensive interest for structural applications due to their excellent glass-forming ability, superior mechanical properties, and unique thermal and corrosion properties. In this study, Zr₆₅Al₁₀Ni₁₀Cu₁₅ amorphous composites with a large fraction of amorphous phase were in situ synthesized by laser direct deposition. X-ray diffraction confirmed the existence of both amorphous and crystalline phases. Laser parameters were optimized in order to increase the fraction of amorphous phase. The microstructure analysis by scanning electron microscopy revealed the deposited structure was composed of periodically repeated amorphous and crystalline phases. Overlapping regions with nanoparticles aggregated were crystallized by laser reheating and remelting processes during subsequent laser scans. Vickers microhardness of the amorphous region showed around 35 pct higher than that of crystalline region. Average hardness obtained by a Rockwell macrohardness tester was very close to the microhardness of the amorphous region. The compression test showed that the fracture strain of Zr₆₅Al₁₀Ni₁₀Cu₁₅ amorphous composites was enhanced from less than 2 pct to as high as 5.7 pct, compared with fully amorphous metallic glass. Differential scanning calorimetry test results further revealed the amorphous structure and glass transition temperature T _g was observed to be around 660 K (387 °C). In 3 mol/L NaCl solution, laser direct deposited amorphous composites exhibited distinctly improved corrosion resistance, compared with fully crystallized samples.