Formation of bulk metallic glasses in the Fe–M–Y–B (M = transition metal) system

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Abstract

In this work, quaternary Fe72−xMxY6B22 (M = Ni, Co and Mo) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have been developed. It is found that a fully amorphous Fe68Mo4Y6B22 cylindrical rod with 6.5 mm in diameter can be prepared by copper mold injection. These alloys have a high glass transition temperature of about 900 K with high fracture strengths up to about 3 GPa although they are still brittle. Magnetic measurements reveal that they are ferromagnetic at ambient temperature with low coercive force of about 2 A/m, saturation magnetization of about 0.7 T and effective permeability of about 7000 at 100 kHz. The newly developed Fe-based quaternary alloys exhibit excellent combination properties: superior glass forming ability (GFA), high glass transition temperature, and soft magnetic properties, which could have potential applications in electronic industries. Furthermore, the effect of Mo addition on GFA in the Fe–Y–B BMG system has been discussed compared with those of Ni and Co additions.

Introduction

Recently, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have been drawn considerable attention [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. Among them, Fe-based BMGs have been intensively studied due to the abundant natural resources, low material cost, and unique physical/mechanical properties such as excellent soft magnetic properties, high strength and high corrosion resistance [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]. Intrinsic brittleness of Fe-based BMGs limited the application as structural materials, while soft magnetic properties are promising in the field of functional materials such as electronic micro-components, magnetic core and switching power-supporter. However, most of Fe-based BMG alloys with excellent glass forming ability (GFA) (critical size larger than 5 mm) are not ferromagnetic at ambient temperature without flux treatment [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23]. Thus, it is still demanded to develop new Fe-based BMG alloys with both higher GFA and ferromagnetism at ambient temperature. In 2005, a new ternary Fe72Y6B22 alloy was reported to be able to form BMG rod up to 2 mm and had high saturation magnetization Is = 1.46 T [24]. This is a very interesting and important result, which triggers us to further enhance its GFA by adjusting its composition. In this work, we study substitution effect of transition metal element such as Ni, Co and Mo on the GFA of the ternary Fe–Y–B alloy and successfully develop a new quaternary Fe–Mo–Y–B alloy, which can be cast into BMG with a critical size up to 6.5 mm in diameter by copper mold casting. The newly developed alloy exhibits good soft magnetic properties. This alloy could also be used as a base alloy for further development of novel Fe-based BMGs and as a prototype to understand the effect of minor alloying on GFA.

Section snippets

Experimental

All alloy ingots with nominal compositions of Fe72−xMoxY6B22 (x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 at.%), Fe72−xNixY6B22 (x = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at.%) and Fe72−xCoxY6B22 (x = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 at.%) were prepared by arc melting the mixture of Fe (99.9%), Mo (99.9%), Ni (99.9%), Co (99.9%), Y (99.5%) and B (99.5%) beads in Ti-gettered high-purity argon atmosphere. Each ingot was inverted and remelted four times to ensure its chemical homogeneity. The ingot was remelted in a quartz tube using an

Results and discussion

DSC measurements of both ribbon and bulk metallic glasses were performed in the present work. It was found that no obvious differences for both shaped metallic glasses were detected. One example is shown in Fig. 1 for DSC curves of ribbon and rod M4 and M3 samples in the range of 800–1150 K. The diameter of glassy rod is 6 mm for M3 and 6.5 mm for M4, respectively. It was found that initial crystallization enthalpies of glassy ribbon and cylinder rod are −105(1) and −103(1) for M3, and −111(1) and

Conclusions

A series of new quaternary Fe72−xMxY6B22 (M = Ni, Co and Mo) BMGs have been developed. It is found that fully amorphous Fe68Mo4Y6B22 alloy with 6.5 mm in diameter can be prepared by copper mold injection, which is about three times larger than the ternary alloy. These alloys have a high glass transition temperature of about 900 K, indicating very stable alloys with high fracture strengths up to about 3 GPa although they are still brittle. Magnetic measurements reveal that they are ferromagnetic at

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank HASYLAB in Germany, KEK and SPring-8 in Japan, BSRF in Beijing, NSRL in Hefei, and APS in USA for use of the synchrotron radiation facilities. Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 50341032, 50425102, 50601021,5070138 and 60776014), Zhejiang University-Helmholtz cooperation fund, the Ministry of Education of China (Program for Changjiang Scholars) and Zhejiang University are gratefully acknowledged.

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