Effects of annealing on the microstructure, corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties of RE65Co25Al10 (RE=Ce, La, Pr, Sm, and Gd) bulk metallic glasses

The effects of annealing on the microstructure, corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of the RE65Co25Al10 (RE=Ce, La, Pr, Sm, and Gd) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) were studied. Microstructural changes are induced after annealing below the onset crystallization temperature of 484 K, resulting in the variation of thermal stability and crystallization behavior. A proper annealing enhances the corrosion resistance in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, which can be attributed to reduction of the electrochemical activity and galvanic coupling effects in the chloride solution. Moreover, the RE-based BMG annealed at 484 K possesses the higher corrosion potential and lower corrosion current density, combined with the corrosion morphologies, which suggests the best corrosion resistance. Annealing can also obviously change the mechanical properties and fracture morphologies. It presents that free volume annihilation can cause more difficulty in the elastic atom rearrangement for the as-annealed RE-based BMGs.