Synthesis and fundamental properties of Cu-based bulk glassy alloys in binary and multi-component systems

A glassy phase containing cubic phase particles with a size of 3-5 am was formed in Cast Cu60Zr30Ti10 and Cu60Hf60Ti10 bulk alloys. The cubic phase is in a metastable state and its lattice parameter (a(0)) is 0.45 nm for the former alloy and 0.51 nm for the latter. These bulk alloys exhibit good mechanical properties of 2000-2130 MPa for tensile strength (sigma(t.f)), 2060-216OMPa for compressive strength (sigma(c.f)) and 0.008-0.017 for compressive plastic strain (epsilon(c.p)). The temperature interval of the supercooled liquid (SL) region prior to crystallization is 37 K for Cu60Zr30Ti10 and 67 K for Cu60Hf30Ti10. The primary crystallization occurred by precipitation of cubic CuZr (a(0) = 0.35 nm) in a diffusion-controlled growth mode of nuclei and an orthorhornbic Cu8Hf3 phase in an interface diffusion-control led growth of nuclei with decreasing nucleation rate. The difference in the precipitation modes is interpreted to be the origin of the difference in the SL region. Furthermore. the addition of Al to Cu-Zr and Cu-Hf alloys caused the formation of a glassy single phase in the rod form with diameters up to at least 3 mm, though bulk glassy alloy rods with critical diameters up to 1.5 mm and sigma(c.f) of 1920-2260 MPa were formed in Cu-Zr and Cu-Hf binary systems. The ternary bulk glassy alloys exhibited high sigma(c.f) of 2100-2370 MPa with epsilon(c.f) of 0.002-0.006. The addition of Pd, Pt, Ag or Au increased DeltaT(x) and a large DeltaT(x) of 102-110 K was obtained for the Cu-Hf-Al-M (M = Pd or Ag) glassy alloys. The synthesis of Cu-based bulk glassy alloys with good mechanical properties and large AT. in glassy single, and mixed glassy and cubic phase states, is important for future applications of bulk glassy alloys.