Prominent Fe-based bulk amorphous steel alloy with large supercooled liquid region and superior corrosion resistance

A prominent Fe-base bulk amorphous steel (BAS) alloy which presents high glass forming ability (GFA), good corrosion resistance, superior mechanical properties and relative lower cost. The Fe41Cr15Co7Mo14C21 xBxY2 (x = 5-10) BAS rods with a diameter of 2-6 mm, can be fabricated by the suction casting method. The highest GFA value can be obtained by adjusting the ratio of boron/carbon, reaching to the value of gamma = 0.4 and gamma(m) = 0.69 for the alloy composition of Fe41Ce15Co7Mo14C12B9Y2. Meanwhile, this alloy also presents very large supercooled liquid region up to 81 K, favourable to be fabricated into micro-surgery tools by thermoplastic forming. In addition, the Fe-base BAS alloy exhibits extremely high hardness around 1200 Hv. The anodic polarization measurement of the Fe-based BAS exhibits a higher corrosion resistance than 304 SS and 316 SS in the Hank's balanced salt solution. The sharpness test results reveal that the Fe-based BAS blade exhibits much higher sharpness because of its lower surface roughness and higher hardness. Moreover, the Fe-base BAS blade presents much better durability on cutting testing, it can remain relatively sharper edge-tip with a low blade sharpness index (BSI) value of 0.38 (in comparison with the BSI value of 0.59 for commercial blades) after the cutting testing over 50 cm length. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.