Metallic Glass Materials for Aerospace Applications have Emerged

Researchers at the University of Saarland in Germany have developed a new amorphous metal titanium sulfur alloy, also known as metallic glass, which has completely different properties from conventional titanium alloys and is particularly suitable for use as lightweight components in aerospace. This achievement was awarded the Inventor Award by the University Knowledge and Technology Transfer Center.

Material research is similar to thousands of puzzle games, and it is very difficult to obtain complete images without finding a suitable starting point. Under the guidance of Professor Ralph Bush, three doctoral students from Saarland University, Alexander Kuba, Benedick Bocchert, and Oliver Gross, finally developed a very strong and lightweight alloy after years of experimentation.

Compared with current amorphous metal materials, this alloy has many advantages: it has abundant raw material sources, mainly composed of titanium and sulfur. Unlike other amorphous metals based on zirconium, palladium, or platinum, titanium is relatively inexpensive, and titanium sulfur alloys are not as highly toxic as commonly used beryllium phosphorus alloys.

No one has attempted to use sulfur for alloys in the past, but this study was the first to choose sulfur as a mixture of different metals. Bo Hitler introduced that they first discovered a sulfur alloy containing palladium and nickel with good performance, and then conducted experiments with lighter and cheaper titanium. After about 250 experiments, the three people finally found the optimal combination ratio of titanium, sulfur, and other elements. The process of finding a formula is very complex, with a 1% difference in the amount of one element determining whether an alloy has the desired properties. Under the same weight, the newly developed titanium sulfur alloy has a strength approximately twice that of ordinary titanium based metals of the same density. Therefore, it is an ideal material for producing lighter and smaller components.

The production process of this so-called metallic glass is also crucial, as the material melt needs to be rapidly cooled at temperatures above 1100 ℃ to prevent the formation of alloys with regular crystal lattices. The melt cools in less than a second, and the solidified melt presents a disordered atomic structure, which is also considered glass. The chaotic and disordered structure makes the performance of metallic glass quite different from that of traditional alloys made from the same raw material. It is as strong as steel, but at the same time, it has elasticity like plastic.