Formation and mechanical properties of Zr–Ni–Al glassy alloys with high glass-forming ability

The addition of Al to a binary Zr75Ni25 alloy greatly increases the stabilization of the supercooled liquid as well as the glass-forming ability (GFA) in Zr75−xNi25Alx (x = 0–24) alloy series. The large supercooled liquid region (ΔTx) of over 80 K and critical sample diameter (dc) for glass formation above 12 mm were obtained in a wide composition range of x = 11–19. The largest dc of 15 mm was fabricated for an off-eutectic Zr60Ni25Al15 alloy, which has the largest ΔTx of 93 K and γ value of 0.396. The bulk glassy alloys exhibited excellent mechanical properties, i.e., high compressive fracture strength of 1662–1958 MPa and large compressive plastic strain of 3.0–4.7%.