Experimental investigation of the effects of cooling with liquid nitrogen and air on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Zr50Cu34Al8Ag8 amorphous alloy

• Published in: Materials letters Vol. 318; p. 132206
• Main Authors: Zhang, Shan, Wei, Chao, Yang, Liang, Lv, Jingwang, Shi, Zhilin, Zhang, Haoran, Zhang, Xinyu, Ma, Mingzhen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Air cooling; Amorphous alloys; Amorphous materials; Cooling effects; Deformation and fracture; Fracture strength; Free volume content; Liquid nitrogen; Liquid nitrogen cooling; Materials science; Mechanical properties; Metallic glasses; Microstructure; Suction; Free volume content; Amorphous materials; Deformation and fracture; Liquid nitrogen cooling
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2022.132206

•Cooling method influences the mechanical properties of amorphous alloy.•The amorphous alloy was rejuvenated after liquid nitrogen cooling.•Free volume content in amorphous alloy increases as the cooling rate increases. In the present study, Zr50Cu34Al8Ag8 amorphous alloy rods were prepared by copper mold suction casting method. The effects of cooling with liquid nitrogen (LN2) and air on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the amorphous alloy were investigated experimentally. The obtained results show that LN2 cooling led to a significant increase in the mechanical properties of the amorphous alloy that was heated to 465 °C. More specifically, the fracture strength and ultimate strain reached 1877.9 MPa and 2.96%, respectively. The improvement of mechanical properties of the amorphous alloy may be attributed to the increase of free volume content in the alloy structure. In contrast, air cooling of the samples heated to 465 °C led to the decrease in their mechanical properties.