We developed a facile ultrasonic vibration route is developed to synthesize BMGs and metallic glass-glass composites.

The work proposed a novel thermoplastic forming approach–the ultrasonic beating forming (UBF) method for bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) in present work. The rapid forming approach can finish the thermoplastic forming of BMGs in less than one second, avoiding the time-dependent crystallization and oxidation to the most extent. Besides, the UBF is also proved to be competent in the fabrication of structures with the length scale ranging from macro scale to nano scale. Our results propose a novel route for the thermoplastic forming of BMGs and have promising applications in the rapid fabrication of macro to nano scale products and devices.

In the glass molding process, the sticking reaction and fatigue wear between the glass and mold hinder the service life and functional application of the mold at the elevated temperature. To improve the chemical inertness and anti-friction properties of the mold, an amorphous carbon coating was synthesized on the tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC–8Co) substrate by magnetron sputtering. The friction behavior between the glass and carbon coating has a significant influence on the functional protection and service life of the mold. Therefore, the glass ring compression tests were conducted to measure the friction coefficient and friction force of the contact interface between the glass and amorphous carbon coating at the high temperature. Meanwhile, the detailed characterization of the amorphous carbon coating was performed to study the microstructure evolution and surface topography of the amorphous carbon coating during glass molding process by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Ramon spectroscopy, and atomic force microscope (AFM). The results showed that the amorphous carbon coating exhibited excellent thermal stability, but weak shear friction strength. The friction coefficient between the glass and coating depended on the temperature. Besides, the service life of the coating was governed by the friction force of the contact interface, processing conditions, and composition diffusion. This work provides a better understanding of the application of carbon coatings in the glass molding.

CrWN glass molding coatings were deposited by plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering (PEMS). The microstructure and thermal stability of these coatings were investigated by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, atomic force microscope and nanoindentation tests. The as-deposited coating exhibited an aggravated lattice expansion resulting in a constant hardness enhancement. The vacuum annealing induced surface coarsening and the spinodal decomposition of the coating accompanied by the formation of nm-sized c-CrN, c-W₂N, and h-WN domains. The annealed coating with low W content had mainly a face-centered cubic (f.c.c) matrix, strain fields caused by lattice mismatch caused hardness enhancement. Following an increase in W content, the annealed coating showed a mixed face-centered cubic (f.c.c) and hexagonal close-packed (h.c.p) matrix. The large volume fraction of h-WN phases seriously weakened the coating strengthening effect and caused an obvious drop in hardness.