Amorphous metal

♤ An amorphous metal (also known metallic glass or glassy metal) is a solid metallic material, usually

an alloy, with a disordered atomic-scale structure (glass-like structure)

♤ Properties: Most metals are crystalline in their solid state, which means they have a highly ordered arrangement of atoms. Amorphous metals are non-crystalline, and have a glass-like structure.

♤ But unlike common glasses, such as window-glass, which are typically insulators Amorphous metals have good electrical conductivity

♤ They have better resistance to wear and corrosion than metals but thermal conductivity (ability to transfer heat) of amorphous materials is lower than that of crystalline metal.

♤ Applications: Used to build highly efficient transformers - Amorphous metals have high electric resistance and low coercivity leads to low loss.leads to low losses by so used to build highly efficient transformers.

♤ The most useful property of bulk amorphous alloys is that they are true glasses, which means that they soften and flow upon heating. This allows for easy processing, such as by injection molding, in much the same way as polymers. As a result, amorphous alloys have been commercialized for use in sports equipment, medical devices, and as cases for electronic equipment

♤ Electronic article surveillance (such as theft control passive ID tags,) often uses metallic glasses because of these magnetic properties.

♤ They can be used as biomaterial for implantation into bones as screws, pins, or plates, to fix fractures