Fabrication of Bulk Glassy Alloy Foams by High Pressure Hydrogen

Porous Pd42.5Cu30Ni7.5P20 bulk glassy alloy rods with porosities of up to 70% were successfully prepared by high pressure hydrogen of 15 MPa. The melt of Pd42.5Cu30Ni7.5P20 alloy kept under high pressure hydrogen absorbs hydrogen and subsequent water quenching of the melt causes the homogeneous dispersion of hydrogen bubbles, which was resulted from the decrease of hydrogen solubility with decrease of pressure. Annealing the hydrogen bubble containing sample at a supercooled liquid state under vacuum, the bubbles are allowed to expand due to the decrease of viscosity of metallic glass matrix. Pores expansion continues until glassy matrix crystallizes or the equilibration among pressure of the pores, pressure of the atmosphere and surface tension is achieved. By utilizing these phenomena, pores up to 80 μm in diameters are homogeneously distributed over the whole cross-sectional area of a fully glassy matrix. Under compressive deformation, the porous alloys with porosities exceeding 40% did not show macroscopic fracture in a wide compressive strain range up to 0.6 whereas the non-porous alloy fractures instantly after elastic limit of about 0.02. Porous bulk glassy alloys exhibit higher plateau stress, lower Young’s modulus and higher energy absorption capacity compared with the conventional crystalline metal foams.