a, TEM picture of two contacting Mo nano-tips with a well-defined bcc construction seen alongside the left fence111right fence zone axis (inset in a). b, Formation of Mo MG below the primary vitrification pulse. The GCIs are indicated by yellow dotted curves. c–e, Progress of the Mo MG below subsequent vitrification pulses. The GCIs moved one step away from one another (denoted by two yellow arrows in b) after the second (c), third (d) and fourth (e) pulse, respectively, ensuing within the progress of the Mo MG. The amorphous construction is corroborated by the diffuse halos within the quick Fourier transformation (inset in e). Nature (2014) doi:10.1038/nature13617
In a newly revealed examine, College of Pittsburgh researchers report an experimental method to the formation of monatomic metallic glasses by ultrafast liquid quenching.
Materials scientists have lengthy sought to kind glass from pure, monoatomic metals. Scott X. Mao and colleagues did it.
Their paper, “Formation of Monoatomic Metallic Glasses Through Ultrafast Liquid Quenching,” was lately published online in Nature, a number one science journal.
Mao, William, Kepler Whiteford Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science on the College of Pittsburgh, says, “It is a elementary difficulty explored by folks on this subject for a very long time, however no one may remedy the issue. Individuals believed that it might be performed, and now we’re capable of present that it’s attainable.”
Metallic glasses are distinctive in that their construction just isn’t crystalline (as it’s in most metals), however moderately is disordered, with the atoms randomly organized. They’re searched for varied business functions as a result of they’re very robust and are simply processed.
Mao’s novel methodology of making metallic glass concerned creating and implementing a brand new method (a cooling nano-device below in-situ transmission electron microscope) that enabled him and his colleagues to realize an unprecedentedly excessive cooling fee that allowed for the transformation of liquefied elemental metals tantalum and vanadium into glass.
Publication: Li Zhong, et al., “Formation of Monoatomic Metallic Glasses Via Ultrafast Liquid Quenching,” Nature (2014) doi:10.1038/nature13617
Picture: Li Zhong, et al. Nature (2014) doi:10.1038/nature13617