Research progress of glass-formation rule and mechanical properties of Fe-based bulk amorphous alloys

Amorphous alloy is a new kind of metastable metallic materials, which exhibits many excellent mechanical, physical and chemical properties due to its disordered structure. Since its birth in the 1960s, amorphous alloy has been attracting much attention from the materials field and the industry. Among the developed alloy systems, Fe-based amorphous alloys have the characteristics of high strength, high hardness, relatively low production cost,strong corrosion resistance and excellent soft magnetic properties, hence have a broad application prospect in the field of structural materials and functional materials. However, the relatively weak glass-forming ability and room temperature brittleness seriously restrict the wide application of Fe-based amorphous alloys. Based on this, the two aspects of the Fe-base amorphous alloy was reviewed in the present article, which covers the glass forming rule (including components types, preparation technology, raw material purity, composition design,etc.) and room-temperature mechanical properties (involving strength,toughness, composition and structure design,etc.). The research status, influencing factors and improved methods of glass-forming ability and room temperature mechanical properties of Fe-based amorphous alloys were emphatically analyzed, especially the latest research results of our group in the field of Fe-base amorphous alloy in nearly a decade were covered. In addition, the current difficulties in research and the future development of Fe-based amorphous alloys were also prospected.