Glass-Forming Ability and Competitive Crystalline Phases for Lightweight Ti-Be-Based Alloys

The glass-forming ability (GFA) for the Ti-Be-based alloys in the Ti-Be-Zr ternary system is systematically studied. It was found that the best GFA obtained at a composition of Ti41Be34Zr25 (at. pct) in the Ti-Be-Zr ternary system, and the bulk-metallic-glass (BMG) rod samples with a diameter of 5 mm were fabricated by Cu-mold casting. The competitive crystalline phases around the composition of the best GFA materials were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The GFA of the ternary alloys was further improved by an addition of 4 at. pct vanadium (V). The largest supercooled liquid region, Delta T (x) (Delta T (x) = T (x) - T (g) , T (g) is the glass-transition temperature, and T (x) the crystallization temperature), in the ternary alloy system reaches about 110 K (110 A degrees C) for the Ti35Be32Zr33 alloy.