Synthesis of impurity-insensitive Zr-based bulk metallic glass

•An impurity-insensitive Zr-based BMG with high GFA was synthesized.•Low-purity materials would not greatly affect mechanical properties of this BMG.•Increasing component number may be beneficial for impurity-insensitivity.

The glass forming ability (GFA) and mechanical properties of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are extremely sensitive to oxygen and other metalloid impurities in raw materials, which severely limits the wide commercial application of this material for the drastic increase of manufacturing cost. In this paper, an impurity-insensitive Zr50Ti4Y1Al10Cu25Ni7Co2Fe1 bulk metallic glass with large component number was synthesized. This alloy shows critical diameter (dc) of 16 mm and similar thermal stability and mechanical properties using both high-purity and low-purity raw materials. The effect of large component number on impurity-insensitivity is discussed in detail. Successful formation of impurity-insensitive Zr-based BMG indicates that increasing component number would be an effective strategy for reducing the influence of harmful impurities on BMGs, which provides a useful guideline for fabrication of low-cost industrial productions.