A practical thermodynamic method to calculate the best glass-forming composition for bulk metallic glasses

Abstract

[Abstract]: Bulk metallic glasses are regarded as a new class of engineering materials because of their extraordinary high strength, great elasticity, and high corrosion and wear resistance. The selection of good glass-forming composition is the most important issue in BMG development. In this paper, a thermodynamic method, which combines element substitution and mixing enthalpy calculation, has been successfully developed to predict the optimum glass-forming compositions in Cu-Zr-Ti, Cu-Hf-Ti, Cu-Zr-Hf-Ti and Pd-Ni-P alloy systems. Alloy compositions with the largest glass-forming ability are always accompanied with the smallest enthalpy value for the alloy systems. The prediction results have been confirmed by experiments. It is concluded that the thermodynamic method provides a practical and effective tool to find the optimum glass forming composition.