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Mg-based bulk metallic glasses: Elastic properties and their correlations with toughness and glass transition temperature

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Abstract

In this work, elastic properties of Mg-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with different chemical compositions were investigated. By compositional tuning in the quaternary Mg–Cu–Ag–Y alloys, the Poisson’s ratio ν of 0.332 is achieved at Mg56Cu21Ag14Y9 BMG, in excess of the previously suggested critical value (ν = 0.31–0.32) for the brittle-to-tough transition in metallic glasses. With the properties of the constituent elements, the predicted values of the bulk modulus B and shear modulus μ of Mg-based BMGs are 8% and 10% greater than the measured value, respectively. Notch toughness KQ of the ten investigated Mg-based BMGs varies between 3.6 and 8.2 MPa√m. Intrinsic brittleness of Mg glass is associated with its tiny plastic zone size (in micrometer scale) and weak resistance to crack propagation. The toughness variations are lack of significant correlation with the ν or μ. Among the investigated alloys, the Mg59.5Cu22.9Ag6.6Gd11 BMG manifests a good combination of improved toughness and high glass-forming ability.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the stimulating discussions with Profs. A.L. Greer and E. Ma. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under Contract No. 2007CB613906 and National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 50871112.

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  1. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Shao-Gang Wang, Ling-Ling Shi & Jian Xu

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  1. Shao-Gang Wang
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Correspondence to Jian Xu.

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Wang, SG., Shi, LL. & Xu, J. Mg-based bulk metallic glasses: Elastic properties and their correlations with toughness and glass transition temperature. Journal of Materials Research 26, 923–933 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.5

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