Newly developed nanostructured Zr/Ti-Al-TM multiphase alloys can provide a
large bandwidth of interesting properties, such as mechanical properties. B
ulk materials with nanocrystalline/ amorphous and (nano) quasicrystalline/
amorphous microstructure with different volume fractions of nanophases and
with different grain sizes can be obtained by slowly cooling the melt as we
ll as by solid state reactions. Multiphase structures are realized either b
y partial devitrification of bulk glass-forming alloys or by defined additi
on of inert compounds upon alloying. Special preparation techniques e.g. co
pper mould casting and subsequent controlled annealing and mechanical alloy
ing combined with hot consolidation of powders are described. The phase for
mation and transformation processes and the thermal stability of such mater
ials in dependence on alloy composition and processing parameters are discu
ssed in detail. Currently, the exploration of properties with respect to po
tential applications of these nanostructured alloys is still at the beginni
ng. First investigations on the contributions of different phases/ volume f
ractions to the overall mechanical behaviour will be shown. At room tempera
ture, the deformation behaviour of amorphous/ crystalline bulk samples is g
overned by contributions of all existing phases yielding a high strength of
the material.