Improved plasticity of bulk metallic glasses upon cold rolling

The intrinsic plasticity of Zr44Ti11Cu9.8Ni10.2Be25 and Zr55Ti5Al10Cu20 Ni-10 bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are improved from 0.5% up to 15% plastic strain due to the introduction of microstructural inhomogeneities upon cold rolling at room temperature. This approach shows an easy way to overcome the intrinsic brittleness of the BMGs by modifying their physical properties, which enables easy nucleation and branching of multiple shear bands upon unconstrained loading during the compression test. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.