11-01 :: December 2010 / January 2011

nanotimes News in Brief

Metallic Glassy Fibres // Production of Nanoscale Metallic Glassy Fibres (MGFs)

W

hen bulk materials are made into micro and nano scale fibres, there will be at-

tractive improvement of structural and functional properties, even unusual experimental phenome- na. The main drawback of various applications of metallic fibres is poor ability of present fabrication methods for controlling their dimensions and sur- face properties. Metallic glassy fibres (MGFs) are desired because of unique mechanical and physi- cal properties and glass-like thermoplastic process- ability of metallic glasses.

Recently, WANG Wei Hua’s group in Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a synthetic route for production of micro to nano scale MGFs (the diameter ranges from 100nm to 70nm) by driving bulk metallic glass rods in their su- percooled liquid region via superplastic deformation.

Compared with existing metallic fibres, the MGFs have precisely designed and controlled properties and size, high structural uniformity and surface smoothness, and extremely flexibility. Remarkably, the method is simple, efficient and low cost, and the MGFs can be continuous prepared by the method. Furthermore, the MGFs circumvent brittleness of metallic glasses by size reduction. They proposed a parameter based on the thermal and rheological properties of MG-forming alloys to control the prepa- ration and size of the fibres. The MGFs with superior

SEM images of Pd40Cu30Ni10P20 MGFs, © IOP

67

properties might attract intensive scientific interest and open wide engineering and functional applica- tions of glassy alloys.

Jun Yi, Xing Xiang Xia, De Qian Zhao, Ming Xiang Pan, Hai Yang Bai and Wei Hua Wang: Micro-and Nanoscale Metallic Glassy Fibers, In: Advanced Engineering Materials, Volume 12(2010), Issue 11, November, 2010, Pages 1117- 1122, DOI:10.1002/adem.201000204: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adem.201000204