Oxygen-driven impurities scavenging before solidification of Fe-based metallic glasses

Abstract Oxygen and impurities are basically unavoidable during the manufacturing of Fe-based metallic glasses, frequently impeding the products' performance and greatly increasing the processing cost. Until now, how oxygen affects the glass-forming ability remains controversial, and eliminating the adverse effects of oxygen and impurities is still a huge challenge. Here we discover a new force of oxide inclusion flotation that drives the occurrence of purification, by blowing oxygen into the Fe-based melts, which help to mix the melts well to accelerate the oxidization and elimination of impurities from commercial raw materials. The synergistic reaction of oxygen and impurities not only improves the glass forming ability, magnetic and mechanical properties of the products, but also makes the stringent processing requirements, e.g. high-purity starting materials and/or high-purity argon, unnecessary. This study uncovers the mystery of oxygen in the glass formation, extends the innovation of fabrication process and highlights a significant technological breakthrough to reduce industrial production cost of Fe-based metallic glasses.