Enhancement of tensile properties by the solid solution strengthening of nitrogen in Zr-based metallic glass composites

The effects of nitrogen on both the glass forming ability (GFA) and mechanical properties of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses were studied experimentally. The results show that the doping of nitrogen could induce the precipitation of N-rich Zr3Ni-type crystals, and the precipitated crystals don't trigger heterogeneous nucleation. Therefore, the remainder molten metal contains very lower nitrogen content and keeps good glass formation ability. Based on this, using the precipitated β-Zr(Ti, Nb) acted as a solid solvent for absorbed nitrogen, the optimum mechanical properties of bulk metallic glass composites can be obtained by doping an appreciate amount of nitrogen. This finding not only gives us a clue to avoid the detriment of light interstitial impurity to glass formation, but also opens a window to adjust the mechanical properties of the composites.