Fabrication of 10mm diameter fully dense Al86Ni6Y4.5Co2La1.5 bulk metallic glass with high fracture strength

Fully dense amorphous Al86Ni6Y4.5Co2La1.5 alloy with a 10mm diameter has been fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). It showed record fracture strength of 1250MPa for aluminium alloys. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed good interfacial bonding. The activation energy for the SPS process depends on the applied pressure and is substantially higher than that for the self-diffusion of aluminium.