본고에서는 고유한 원자구조에 기인한 우수한 특성으로 인해 구조재료 및 기능재료로서 그 활용이 기대되고 있는 벌크 아몰퍼스 소재에 있어 온간압출, 온간압연, 방전 플라즈마 소결(Spark Plasma Sintering)등 과냉각액체온도구간에서의 점성유동을 이용한 고화성형 공정의 최근 기술동향에 대해 간략히 소개했다.

In the development of new hydrogen absorbing materials for a next generation of metal hydride electrodes for rechargeable batteries, metastable Mg-Ni-based compounds find currently special attention. Amor phous-nanocrystalline and alloys were produced by mechanical alloying and melt-spinning and characterized by means of XRD, TEM and DSC. On basis of mechanically alloyed Mg-Ni-Y powders, complex hydride electrodes were fabricated and their electrochemical behaviour in 6M KOH (pH=14,8) was investigated. The electrodes made from powders, which were prepared under use of a SPEX shaker mill, with a major fraction of nanocrystalline phase reveal a higher electrochemical activity far hydrogen reduction and a higher maximum discharge capacity (247 mAh/g) than the electrodes from alloy powder with predominantly amorphous microstructure (216 mAh/g) obtained when using a Retsch planetary ball mill at low temperatures. Those discharge capacities are higher that those fur nanocrystalline electrodes. However, the cyclic stability of those alloy powder electrodes was low. Therefore, fundamental stability studies were performed on and ribbon samples in the as-quenched state and after cathodic hydrogen charging by means of anodic and cathodic polarisation measurements. Gradual oxidation and dissolution of nickel governs the anodic behaviour before a passive state is attained. A stabilizing effect of higher fractions of yttrium in the alloy on the passivation was detected. During the cathodic hydrogen charging process the alloys exhibit a change in the surface state chemistry, i.e. an enrichment of nickel-species, causing preferential oxidation and dissolution during subsequent anodization. The effect of chemical pre-treatments in 1% HF and in solution on the surface degradation processes was investigated. A HF treatment can improve their anodic passivation behavior by inhibiting a preferential nickel oxidation-dissolution at low polarisation, whereas a treatment has the opposite effect. Both pre-treatment methods lead to an enhancement of cathodically induced surface degradation processes.

Ti-Cu-Ni-Sn quaternary amorphous alloys of Ti50Cu32Ni15Sn3, Ti50Cu25Ni20Sn5, and Ti50Cu23Ni20Sn7 composition were prepared by mechanical alloying in a planetary high-energy ball-mill (AGO-2). The amorphization of all three alloys was found to set in after milling at 300rpm speed for 2h. A complete amorphization was observed for Ti50Cu32Ni15Sn3 and Ti50Cu25Ni20Sn5 after 30h and 20h of milling, respectively. Differential scanning calorimetry analyses revealed that the thermal stability increased in the order of Ti50Cu32Ni15Sn3, Ti50Cu25Ni20Sn5, and Ti50Cu23Ni20Sn7.

Amorphous diamond has a very low work function (1 eV) at modest temperature (150℃). It has been coat coated on electron emitting electrodes. Such electrodes are used for cold cathode fluorescence lamps (CCFL) that illuminate liquid crystal displays (LCD) for rnote books and television sets. Amorphous diamond can dramatically reduce the turn-on voltage to lit CCFL so the lamp life can be greatly extended. Moreover, the electrical current can be increased to enhance the brightness of the light.

Microstructure and soft magnetic properties of bulk amorphous and/or nanocrystalline Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 alloys prepared by consolidation at 5.5GPa were investigated. The relative density of the bulk sample 1 (from amorphous powders) was 98.5% and the grain sizes were about 10.6nm. While the relative density and grain sizes of bulk sample 2 (from nanocrystalline powders) are 98% and 20.1nm, respectively. Particularly, the bulk samples exhibited a good combined magnetic property: for Sample1, Ms=125emu/g and Hc=1.5Oe; for Sample2, Ms=129emu/g and Hc=3.3Oe. The success of synthesizing the nanocrystalline Fe-based bulk alloys will be encouraging for the future development of bulk nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloys.

The magnetic inductance of nanocrystalline Fe73Si16B7Nb3Cu1 and an amorphous FeSiB powder sheet has been investigated to identify RFID performance. The powder was mixed with binder and solvent and tape-casted to form films. Results show annealing significantly influenced on the inductance of the material. The surface oxidation of the particles was the main reason for the reduced inductance. The maximum inductance of Fe73Si16B7Nb3Cu1 alloy was about 88μH at 17.4 MHz, about 65% greater compared to the FeSiB alloy. The higher inductance in the nanocrystalline alloy indicates it may be used as a potential replacement of current RFID materials.

Co-based amorphous powder was produced by a new atomization process “Spinning Water Atomization Process (SWAP)”, having rapid super-cooling rate. The composition of the alloys was ((Co0.95Fe0.05)1-xCrx)75Si15B10 (x=0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075). The powders became the amorphous state even if particle size was up to about 500 μm. The coercive force of powders was about 0.35 - 0.7 Oe. Furthermore, Co-based amorphous powder cores with glass binders were made by cold-pressing and sintering methods. The initial permeability of the core in the frequency range up to 100 kHz was about 110, and the core loss at 100 kHz for Bm = 0.1 T was 350 kW/m3.

Co-Fe-Ni-B-Si-Cr based amorphous strips containing nitrogen were manufactured via melt spinning, and then devitrified by crystallization treatment at the various annealing temperatures of for up to 30 minutes in an inert gas atmosphere. The microstructures were examined by using XRD and TEM and the magnetic properties were measured by using VSM and B-H meter. Among the alloys, the amorphous ribbons of containing 121 ppm of nitrogen showed relatively high saturation magnetization. The alloy ribbons crystallized at showed that the grain size of alloy containing 121 ppm of nitrogen was about f nm, which exhibited paramagnetic behavior. The formation of nano-grain structure was attributed to the finely dispersed Fe4N particles and the solid-solutionized nitrogen atoms in the matrix. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the nano-grain structure of 5nm in size could reduce the core loss within the normally applied magnetic field of 300A/m at 10kHz.

This work is to present a new synthesis of metallic glass (MG)/metallic glass (MG) composites using gas atomization and spark plasma sintering (SPS) processes. The MG powders of (CuA) and (NiA) as atomized consist of fully amorphous phases and present a different thermal behavior; (glass transition temperature) and (crystallization temperature) are 716K and 765K for the Cu base powder, but 836K and 890K for the Ni base ones, respectively. SPS process was used to consolidate the mixture of each amorphous powder, being in weight. The resultant phases were Cu crystalline dispersed NiA matrix composites as well as NiA phase dispersed CuA matrix composites, depending on the SPS temperatures. Effect of the second phases embedded in the MG matrix was discussed on the micro-structure and mechanical properties.