Fabrication of porous bulk metallic glass

An open-cell porous bulk metallic glass (BMG) with a diameter of at least 6 mm was fabricated by using an U-turn quartz tube and infiltration casting around soluble NaCl placeholders. The pore formation and glassy structure were examined by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the pores or cells are connected to each other and the specimen is composed of a mostly glassy phase. This paper provides a suitable method for fabrication of porous BMG and BMG with larger size in diameter.