title: Strong, ductile, and thermally stable Cu-based metal-intermetallic nanostructured composites.
abstract: Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) and nanocrystalline metals (NMs) have been extensively investigated due to their superior strengths and elastic limits. Despite these excellent mechanical properties, low ductility at room temperature and poor microstructural stability at elevated temperatures often limit their practical applications. Thus, there is a need for a metallic material system that can overcome these performance limits of BMGs and NMs. Here, we present novel Cu-based metal-intermetallic nanostructured composites (MINCs), which exhibit high ultimate compressive strengths (over 2 GPa), high compressive failure strain (over 20%), and superior microstructural stability even at temperatures above the glass transition temperature of Cu-based BMGs. Rapid solidification produces a unique ultra-fine microstructure that contains a large volume fraction of Cu5Zr superlattice intermetallic compound; this contributes to the high strength and superior thermal stability. Mechanical and microstructural characterizations reveal that substantial accumulation of phase boundary sliding at metal/intermetallic interfaces accounts for the extensive ductility observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Keith J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Dusoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Sriram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vijayan
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Bissell
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Jack E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Morley
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Leopolodo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Valencia
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Avinash M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dongare
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aindow
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering &Institute of Materials Science, 97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136, Storrs, CT, 06269-3136, USA.
authors.forename: Seok-Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee