Tune the mechanical properties of Ti-based metallic glass composites by additions of nitrogen

Different amounts of nitrogen from 1000 to 14,000 wt ppm were added into the Ti48Zr20Nb12Cu5Be15 bulk metallic glass composites. Results show that addition of nitrogen can increase the yield strength of composites from 1400 to 2350 MPa due to the solid solution strengthening effect. The composites still owns certain plastic strain (above 10% when contains 14,000 ppm nitrogen) before fracture under compressive test. The reason is attribute to nitrogen shows to be a much weaker activator for the formation of brittle alpha-Ti phase as compared with oxygen, which make the beta-Ti dendrite still softer than that of the glassy phase, thus can enhance the strength of the materials but do not deteriorate the plasticity too much. Our research show that nitrogen can be added into the Ti-based metallic glass composites in a very large range to effectively tune the suitable mechanical properties of Ti-based metallic glass composites, without worrying about the catastrophic failure in the process of deformation.