Novel application of the electrodeposition on bulk metallic glasses

The electrodeposition technique was employed to prepare fine-grained copper coatings on the substrate of the Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 bulk metallic glass (BMG). It is found that Zr-based BMGs with copper coatings exhibited larger plastic strains than those without coatings, at the same strain rate under the uniaxial compression. Contrary to the uncoated metallic glass, the existence of copper coatings inhibited the rapid propagation of primary shear bands, and promoted the generation of shear bands, which led to that the coated samples exhibited large plastic strain eventually. It reveals that the electrodeposition technique is a promising approach to improve the plasticity of ‘traditionally brittle’ BMGs.