Designing Bulk Metallic Glass Composites with Enhanced Formability and Plasticity

To address the main stumbling-block of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), i.e., room temperature brittleness, designing BMG matrix composites has been attracted extensive attention. Up to date, BMG composites in various alloy systems have been successfully developed by forming crystalline phases embedded in the amorphous matrix through either ex-situ or in-situ methods. In this paper, a brief review of our recent work in this topic will be presented and the novel approaches to improving composite formability and mechanical properties will also be highlighted. The main purpose of this manuscript is not to offer a comprehensive review of all the BMG composites, but instead focuses will be placed on illustrating recently developed advanced BMG composites including Fe-based BMG composite with no metalloids, Al-based BMG composite and BMG composites reinforced by the TRIP (transformation-induced plasticity) effects. The basic ideas and related mechanisms underlying the development of these novel BMG composites will be discussed.