Enhancement of glass-forming ability of Fe-based bulk metallic glasses with high saturation magnetic flux density

The effects of substituting Fe with Ni on thermal properties, glass-forming ability (GFA) and magnetic properties of Fe76-xNixMo3.5P10C4B4Si2.5 (x = 0−30 at.%) alloys were investigated in detail. The breadth of the supercooled liquid region was found to gradually increase from 42 to 55 K with increasing Ni content to 30 at.%. When x = 5 at.%, the alloy composition approached a eutectic point, resulting in an increase in GFA. As a result, FeNiMoPCBSi bulk metallic glasses with critical diameters up to 5.5 mm were successfully synthesized by copper mold casting. These glassy alloys exhibit a high saturation magnetic flux density of 0.75−1.21 T and excellent soft magnetic properties, i.e., low coercive force of 1.1−2.0 A/m, and high effective permeability of 14400−19700 at 1 kHz under a field of 1 A/m. The reasons for the high stability of the supercooled liquid, and the high GFA as well as excellent soft magnetic properties are discussed in this article.