Wear resistance of CuZr-based amorphous-forming alloys against bearing steel in 3.5% NaCl solution

Abstract

To investigate the amorphous-crystalline microstructure on the tribocorrosion of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), 6 mm diameter rods of Cu_46-xZr₄₇Al₇Ag_x (x = 0, 2, 4) amorphous-forming alloys with in situ crystalline and amorphous phases were fabricated by arc-melting and Cu-mould casting. Using a pin-on-disc tribometer, the tribo-pair composed by CuZr-based amorphous-forming alloys and AISI 52100 steel were studied in 3.5% NaCl solution. With the increase of Ag content from 0 to 4 at.%, the compressive fracture strength and the average hardness decrease firstly and then increase. Moreover, 4 at.% Ag addition increases the amount of amorphous phase obviously and inhibits the formation of brittle crystalline phase, resulting in the improvement of corrosion resistance and the corrosive wear resistance. The primary wear mechanism of the BMG composites is abrasive wear accompanying with corrosive wear. The tribocorrosion mass loss of Cu₄₂Zr₄₇Al₇Ag₄ composite is 1.5 mg after 816.8 m sliding distance at 0.75 m s⁻¹ sliding velocity under 10 N load in NaCl solution. And the volume loss evaluated from the mass loss is about 20 times lower than that of AISI 304 SS. Thus, Cu₄₂Zr₄₇Al₇Ag₄ composite may be a good candidate in the tribology application under marine environment.

Keywords:

• Wear
• metallic glass
• tribology
• metal matrix composites
• sliding wear
• amorphous alloys