From the production of tougher, more durable smart phones
and other electronic devices, to a wider variety of longer lasting biomedical
implants, bulk metallic glasses are poised to be mainstay materials for the 21st Century.
Featuring a non-crystalline amorphous structure, bulk metallic glasses can be
as strong or even stronger than steel, as malleable as plastics, conduct electricity and resist corrosion.
These materials would seem to have it all save for one problem: they are often
brittle, with a poor and uneven resistance to fatigue that makes their
reliability questionable. The creation of multicomponent bulk-metallic glass
composites is addressing this issue but the problem remains for monolithic
metallic glasses, which are major components of bulk metallic composites.