**Introduction**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Properties and Processing of**

**Introductory Chapter: Properties and Processing of** 

With an amorphous atomic structure, metallic glasses (MGs) (also called amorphous alloys) own some unique features compared to the conventional metal alloys, which make them versatile materials [1–7]. For example, MGs commonly show very high strength [8, 9], and thus they are very promising materials for fabrication of aircraft frames. High hardness and excellent resistance to wear make them potential candidates for contact applications such as phone's shell. The high elasticity makes them suitable for applications as golf clubs or spring [10]. High-strength, low elastic modulus, and good corrosion resistance make MGs promising applications as biomedical materials [2]. Although great progress has been achieved for MGs in the past decades, their practical applications as structural and functional materials are greatly impeded due to three main problems [1, 11], that is, dimensional limit, poor tension plasticity, and hard-to-machining and shaping.

As the formation of amorphous structure requires a high cooling rate, the size of MGs is greatly limited. Although some MGs with relatively good glass forming ability (GFA) are developed recently, the size of MG sample is quite small compared to that of conventional metal alloys. Currently, some new methods such as laser additive manufacturing are employed to produce MGs [12–15], which are promising to solve the problem of dimensional limit. However, additional issues such as crystallization and crack appear, which require further investigation.

For applications as structural materials, tensile plasticity is necessary. However, most MGs exhibit brittle fracture under tensile stress due to the fast propagation of single or very few shear bands [16, 17]. Therefore, improving the tensile plasticity of MGs is a very significant topic for their practical applications. Recently, some methods such as introduction of secondary phase into the glass matrix (i.e., fabrication of metallic glass matrix composites (MGMC)) [18–20], mechanical pre-deformation [21], surface modification [22–25] are proposed to tune the tensile plasticity of MGs, achieving some progress. However, the foundational mechanism

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.78665

**Metallic Glasses**

**Metallic Glasses**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78665

Hu Huang

Hu Huang

**1. Introduction**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Properties and Processing of Metallic Glasses Introductory Chapter: Properties and Processing of Metallic Glasses**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.78665

#### Hu Huang Hu Huang

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78665
