Compositional dependence of thermal and elastic properties of Cu-Ti-Zr-Ni bulk metallic glasses

Starting from the quaternary Cu₄₇Ti₃₄Zr₁₁Ni₈ alloy, the compositional dependence of thermal and elastic properties of Cu-Ti-Zr-Ni alloys was systematically investigated. Quaternary Cu-Ti-Zr-Ni alloys can be cast directly from the melt into copper molds to form fully amorphous strips or rods with the thickness of 3–6 mm. The evidence of the amorphous nature of the cast rods was provided by X-ray spectra. The measured glass transition temperature (T_g) and crystallization temperature (T_x) were obtained for the alloys using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at the heating rate of 20 K/s. In the results, the differences between the glass temperature and the crystallization temperature (ΔT_x=T_x-T_g) are measured with values ranging up to 33–55 K. The reduced glass transition temperature (T_rg), which is the ratio of the glass temperature to the liquidus temperature (T_l), is often used as an indication of the glass-forming ability of metallic alloys. For the present Cu-Ti-Zr-Ni alloys, this ratio is typically in the range of 0.5838–0.5959, characteristic of metallic alloys with good glass-forming ability. The elastic constants for several selected alloys were measured using ultrasonic methods. The values of the elastic shear modulus, bulk modulus, and Poisson’s ratio were also given.