Correlation of the glass formation and phase selection of the Mg-Cu-Gd bulk metallic glass forming alloys

The glass formation and microstructure evolution of Mg6lCu28Gd11 and alloys laying on the line linking this composition to pure magnesium, i.e. alloys with fixed Cu:Gd ratio but increasing Mg content were systematically studied. A schematic phase diagram with three ternary phase regions was built based on the related competitive crystalline phases. Moreover, the results indicate that the alloys located in the Mg2Cu-Mg2CuGd-Mg6CuGd ternary phase region have higher glass forming ability than alloys with increased magnesium content.