Computational investigation of deformation mechanisms at the atomistic scale of metallic glass-graphene composites (MGGCs)

A Agrawal and R Mirzaeifar, JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 130, 155105 (2021).

DOI: 10.1063/5.0062050

While metallic glasses exhibit exceptionally high strength, their relatively low ductility, accompanied by catastrophic failure caused by the formation of shear bands, is the major obstacle to using these materials in practical applications. Despite discovering some methodologies for improving the near-zero ductility of metallic glasses, overcoming this deficiency is still the most active field of research in designing and fabricating bulk metallic glasses. This work utilizes computational studies at the atomistic scale to demonstrate that adding graphene to metallic glasses is a superior method to improve their ductility. Our results show that the graphene layers in metallic glass- graphene composites will enhance the ductility by activation of three deformation mechanisms, including (i) confining the space for shear band formation, (ii) retarding the propagation of embryonic shear bands, and (iii) increasing the resistance of the metallic glass matrix against shearing during the nucleation and propagation of shear bands.

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