Towards improved integrated properties in FeCrPCB bulk metallic glasses by Cr addition

• Low-cost Fe–Cr–P–C–B BMGs with integrated properties were fabricated.
• Fe–Cr–P–C–B BMGs shows high corrosion resistance and good soft-magnetic properties.
• The effects of Cr addition on the properties of Fe-based BMGs are evaluated.

Fe-based soft-magnetic metallic glasses (MGs) of Fe80−xCrxP9C9B2 (x = 0, 2, 5, 8 and 16 at.%) with high glass-forming ability (GFA), good soft-magnetic properties and high corrosion resistance are fabricated. With the addition of Cr to FePC-based alloys, the GFA and saturation magnetization (Ms) slightly decrease while the corrosion resistance effectively increases. The Fe–Cr–P–C–B BMGs exhibit good GFA and fully glassy rods can be produced up to 1.8 and 1.5 mm in diameter for the 2 and 5 at.% Cr added alloys, respectively. The alloys with 2 and 5 at.% Cr addition also show good soft-magnetic properties featured by high Ms of 1.16 and 1.04 T, low coercivity of 2.7 and 2.2 A/m, respectively. Besides, the corrosion behavior of the alloys was studied by immersion tests and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. It was found that the addition of Cr efficiently enhances the corrosion resistance of Fe–Cr–P–C–B alloys and the glassy alloy with 5 at.% Cr addition exhibits better corrosion resistance in comparison with the stainless steel SUS304 in 3 mass% NaCl solution. The combination of large GFA, good soft-magnetic properties, high corrosion resistance as well as low cost makes the Fe–Cr–P–C–B alloys as promising soft-magnetic and anti-corrosive materials for industrial applications.