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Homogeneity of the superplastic Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 bulk metallic glass

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Abstract

A recent report on the “room temperature superplasticity” in the Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 bulk metallic glass [Y.H. Liu et al., Science 315, 1385 (2007)] was ascribed to the distinctive micrometer-sized structural heterogeneity. To verify the microstructure in this alloy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and anomalous small-angle x-ray scattering experiments were conducted. The results show that no micrometer-sized or nanometer-sized structural heterogeneities can be found. The micrometer-sized dark and bright regions that were previously reported as the reason for the plasticity are artifacts caused by TEM specimen preparation, rather than the intrinsic structure feature of this alloy. This finding is important for further studying the unique properties of this alloy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Center for New-Structured Materials, Zhejiang University and Laboratory of New-Structured Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    Lian-Yi Chen, Yue-Wu Zeng & Qing-Ping Cao

  2. National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan

    Byung-Joo Park, Yi-Meng Chen & Kazuhiro Hono

  3. HASYLAB at DESY, Hamburg, D-22607, Germany

    Ulla Vainio

  4. Electron Microscopy Group of Materials Science, Ulm University, Ulm, D-89069, Germany

    Zao-Li Zhang & Ute Kaiser

  5. International Center for New-Structured Materials, Zhejiang University and Laboratory of New-Structured Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Dong Wang & Jian-Zhong Jiang

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  1. Lian-Yi Chen
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Chen, LY., Zeng, YW., Cao, QP. et al. Homogeneity of the superplastic Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 bulk metallic glass. Journal of Materials Research 24, 3116–3120 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2009.0395

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2009.0395

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