The microstructures and free-volume evolutions of as-cast and pre-annealed Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu12.5Ag5 bulk metallic glasses during rolling deformation have been investigated. No phase transformation is detected in the as-cast/rolled specimen. However,the structural stability of the glass against plastic deformation is worse after pre-annealing,indicated by nanocrystallization in preannealed/rolled specimens with large deformation degrees. Moreover,with increasing deformation degree,the free-volume content in a pre-annealed/rolled specimen increases at a lower average rate than that in an as-cast/rolled specimen.
ZHOU Wei LU BinFeng KONG LingTi LI JinFu ZHOU YaoHe
Curing behaviors of the unsaturated polyester resin （UPR） containing 1-1.8 wt% methyl ethyl ketone peroxide （MEKP） initia- tor are investigated. The viscosity, gelation and vitrification transition of the UPR-MEKP systems are examined using the ro- tating viscometer and differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）. A liquid fragility parameter, Me, defined as the viscosity varia- tion rate of the liquids towards the curing temperature is presented. It is found that Mc has a good negative relation with the glass transition temperature （Tg） in the systems. Mc can be used for predicting the stability of the cured amorphous systems. The relationship between the liquid and cured thermoset polymer systems is studied from both the thermodynamic and kinetic point of view.
Similar element substitution has been applied for improving glass forming ability （GFA） in AI86NigLa5 amor- phous alloy. The effects of La-Ce and Ni-Co pairs on the GFA, magnetic properties and hardness of Al-Ni-La alloy were investigated by using X-ray diffraction （XRD）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）, magnetometer and hardness-tester. The results show the GFA of the samples in the order of Al86（Ni0.5Co0.5）9（La0.5Ce0.5）5〈 A186Ni9Las〈A186Ni9（La0.5Ce0.5）5, implying that similar element substitution has a limited enhancing effect on the GFA of the present Al-Ni-La alloy. In addition, the measured samples display a diamagnetic behavior at room temperature. The variations of diamagnetic behavior as well as the microhardness of the samples are strongly dependent on the microstructure, i.e., the amounts of the icosahedral structure and precipitates, after the similar element substitution in the Al-Ni-La alloy.
Guihua Li Weimin Wang Xiufang Bian Li Wang Jiteng Zhang Rui Li Tao Huang
The non-linear effects of different initial melt temperatures on the microstructure evolution during the solidification process of liquid Mg7Zn3 alloys were investigated by molecular dynamics simulation, The microstructure transformation mechanisms were analyzed by several methods. The system was found to be solidified into amorphous structures from different initial melt temperatures at the same cooling rate of 1×10^12 K/s, and the 1551 bond-type and the icosahedron basic cluster （12 0 12 0 ） played a key role in the microstructure transition. Different initial melt temperatures had significant effects on the final microstructures. These effects only can be clearly observed below the glass transition temperature Tg; and these effects are non-linearly related to the initial melt temperatures, and fluctuated in a certain range. However, the changes of the average atomic energy of the systems are still linearly related with the initial melt temperatures, namely, the higher the initial melt temperature is, the more stable the amorphous structure is and the stronger the glass forming ability will be.
The microstructures and thermal properties of Fe61Co9-xZr8Mo5WxB17 (x=0 and 2) formed under different vacuum conditions were investigated by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), X-ray diffractometry(XRD), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), and conventional dilatometry(DIL). The variation of the non-monotonic effects of tungsten content and vacuum conditions on the glass forming ability(GFA) of Fe-based alloys can be drawn in a schematic diagram. The higher the GFA of alloys, the higher the difference between the thermal expansion coefficients of glassy state and crystalline state(-α), which can be described by the free volume model during dilatometric measurements. Under low and high vacuum conditions, the viscosity and microhardness are improved and the fragility of the Fe-based alloys are decreased by adding tungsten.
The formation and evolution characteristics of bcc phase during the isothermal relaxation processes for supercooled-liquid and amorphous Pb were investigated by molecular dynamics simulation and cluster-type index method （CTIM）. It is found that during the relaxation process, the formation and evolution of bcc phase are closely dependent on the initial temperature and structure. During the simulation time scale, when the initial temperature is in the range of supercooled liquid region, the bcc phase can be formed and kept a long time; while it is in the range of glassy region, the bcc phase can be formed at first and then partially transformed into hcp phase; when it decreases to the lower one, the hcp and fcc phases can be directly transformed from the glassy structure without undergoing the metastable bcc phase. The Ostwald＇s ＂step rule＂ is impactful during the isothermal relaxation process of the supercooled and glassy Pb, and the metastable bcc phase plays an important role in the precursor of crystallization.
A larger-scale Mg70Zn30 alloy system including 100000 atoms has been simulated by using the molecular dynamics method to investigate the icosahedral medium-range order （IMRO） formed in the MgToZn30 metallic glass. It is found that the simulated pair distribution function of Mg70Zn30 metallic glass is in good agreement with the experimental results. The glass transition temperature Tg is near 450 K under the cooling rate of 1×10^12 K/s. The icosahedral local structures play a critical role in the formation of metallic glass, and they are the dominant local configurations in the Mg70Zn30 metallic glass. The IMRO in the Mg70Zn30 metallic glass is characterized by certain types of extended icosahedral clusters combined by intercross-sharing atoms in the form of chains or dendrites. The size distributions of these IMRO clusters present a magic number sequence of 19, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39,..., and the magic clusters can be classified into three types according to their compactness. The IMRO clusters grow rapidly in a low-dimensional way with cooling, but this growth is limited near Tg.
