Ductile Bulk Metallic Glass Foams

Abstract

An open-cell fully amorphous metal foam (see Figure) with a bulk density ca. 1.5 g cm–3 (porosity ca. 78 %) is fabricated from the commercial glass-forming alloy Vit106 (Zr-5%Nb-15%Cu-13%Ni-10%Al, in at.-%), using the salt-replication technique. Despite the absence of significant plasticity in the monolithic alloy, the foamed alloy is ductile in compression and achieves engineering strains of 50 % without failure, giving it potential as a lightweight structural material or bone-replacement implant.