Microstructures and mechanical properties of Zr-based metallic glass composites plasticized with titanium wire mesh

Abstract

Adding a second phase to metallic glasses to prepare metallic glass composites is an effective and commonly employed approach for plasticizing metallic glasses. In this study, a newly designed die-casting process was adopted to incorporate titanium wire mesh as the second phase into the Zr_41.2Ti_13.8Cu_12.5Ni₁₀Be_22.5 (at%) metallic glass, successfully fabricating metallic glass composites with good plasticity. The detection results indicate that the interface between the second phase and the metallic glass matrix in the metallic glass composites fabricated by this process exhibited favorable metallurgical bonding, with no generation of brittle intermediate phases. Furthermore, the incorporation of the second phase can effectively induce the generation of multiple shear bands, and thereby enhance the plasticity of the metallic glass composite. The research results on mechanical properties indicate that when the wire diameter and pore size of the titanium wire mesh are 60 μm and 135 μm respectively, the compressive strength of the metallic glass composite is 1.59 ± 0.02 GPa and the compressive plastic strain reaches 11.8 ± 0.7 %. This research not only offers a novel method for the preparation of metallic glass composites but also provides a reference for the microstructure design of high-plasticity metallic glass composites.