Effect of minor Cu content on microstructure and mechanical property of NiTiCu bulk alloys fabricated by crystallization of metallic glass powder

• Ultrafine-grained NiTiCu alloys were prepared by sintering of metallic glass powders above Tx.
• Yield strength of the prepared NiTiCu alloy is two times of that of solidified counterpart alloy.
• NiTiCu metallic glass powders varying Cu contents have different crystallization mechanisms.
• Different crystallization mechanisms cause different microstructures of the prepared alloys.
• The different microstructures cause different mechanical properties of the prepared alloys.

Ultrafine-grained Ni50.2−xTi49.8Cux (x = 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5) bulk shape memory alloys were fabricated by sintering of metallic glass (MG) powder and crystallization of amorphous phase. Non-isothermal crystallization kinetic analysis reveals that the crystallization mechanism of the synthesized x = 5 MG powder is typical interface-controlled two dimensional growth of nuclei followed by volume diffusion-controlled three dimensional growth of nuclei. In contrast, the crystallization mechanism of the synthesized x = 7.5 MG powder is typical volume diffusion-controlled three dimensional growth of nuclei in whole crystallization process. Correspondingly to different crystallization mechanisms, the two sintered and crystallized (SCed) bulk alloys have the same crystallized phases of bcc B2, fcc NiTi2 phases, and monoclinic B19′, but these phases display different morphologies and distributions. The SCed x = 5 bulk alloy has a microstructure of bcc B2 matrix surrounding fcc NiTi2 phase region, while the SCed x = 7.5 bulk alloy possesses discontinuous bcc B2 phase region. Consequently, the different crystallization mechanisms and microstructures causes extreme high yield strength and large plasticity for the SCed x = 5 bulk alloy and low strength and no plasticity for the SCed x = 7.5 bulk alloy. Especially, the yield strength of the SCed x = 5 bulk alloy is at least two times of that of the counterpart alloy prepared by melt solidification. The results provide a method fabricating high performance bulk alloys by tailoring crystallization mechanism using powder metallurgy.