New Fe–Cr–Mo–Ga–C composites with high compressive strength and large plasticity

A novel nanostructured Fe–Cr–Mo–Ga–C composite derived from a bulk metallic glass-forming alloy composition has been prepared with different carbon content to improve the ductility of this high-strength material. Excellent compressive mechanical properties were found for both samples, which essentially consist of soft gallium-enriched dendrites embedded in a hard chromium- and molybdenum-enriched matrix. The coexistence of the soft and hard phases leads to a composite material with a high fracture strength combined with large ductility. The obtained values of true strength and true strain are 2.9 GPa and 36% for the alloy with lower carbon content and 3.0 GPa and 16% for the alloy with higher carbon content, respectively. It is worth noting that such excellent compressive behavior has never been observed before for any crystalline or glassy structured material.