Effect of Industrial Raw Materials on the Glass-Forming Ability, Magnetic and Mechanical Properties of Fe-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses

Pseudo-ternary Fe78P13C9 (the real composition is Fe77.6Si1.4P12.7C8.3) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with the maximum diameter of 1.5 mm based on industrial raw materials has been prepared by J-quenching technique using the master alloys with fluxing treatment, whereas fully amorphous alloy rod with the diameter of 1.0 mm cannot be obtained by the same preparation method using the master alloy without fluxing treatment. It is indicated that the glass formation ability (GFA) of the present Fe-based alloys based on industrial raw materials can be greatly enhanced through fluxing treatment. For comparison, the amorphous alloy rod with the same composition based on the pure raw materials has also been prepared by the same preparation technique and the critical diameter for fully glass formation gets to 2.0 mm. The DSC result indicates that the present Fe-based BMG based on industrial raw materials reveals higher thermal stability compared with the BMG based on pure raw materials. The magnetic tests show that the saturation magnetizations of the present Fe-based BMGs prepared by pure raw materials and industrial raw material are around 1.40 T, and have no significant difference. Compressive tests show that the present Fe-based BMG based on industrial raw materials exhibits higher compressive fracture strength (3.11 GPa) and slightly less plastic strain (0.8 pct) compared with the BMG based on pure raw materials with the same composition.