A high strength Co Fe Ta B metallic glass phase enabled tensile plasticity in Co Fe Ta B O oxide glass matrix nanocomposites

Oxide glasses are intrinsically brittle at room temperature when loaded under tension. In this study, a high-strength CoFe-based metallic glass was used as a strengthening phase to make a Co-Fe-Ta-B-O oxide glass become stronger and ductile in tension. The developed metallic-glass-reinforced oxide glass matrix nanocomposite possessed a supra-nanometer-sized dual-phase structure. Owing to the dispersion strengthening effects, the nanocomposite showed a tensile strength sigma(b) of similar to 2.7 GPa, about 29% higher than that of the single-phase oxide glass. Meanwhile, its tensile plasticity epsilon(p) was enhanced from zero to similar to 2.7%. The continuous glass/glass interfaces of the dual-phase mixture are thought to enable the tensile plasticity in the nanocomposite. Our results provide an approach to effectively enhance both the strength and tensile ductility of intrinsically brittle oxide glasses. Published under license by AIP Publishing.