Oxide-Metal Hybrid Glass Nanomembranes with Exceptional\nThermal Stability

Contrary\nto oxide or polymeric glasses, metallic glasses are infamously\nknown for their relatively limited thermal stability, which is often\ncharacterized by their narrow supercooled liquid regions. Nonetheless,\nwe successfully fabricated metallic-glass based nanomembranes with\nan ultrahigh thermal ability by a polymer surface buckling enabled\nexfoliation technique. These nanomembranes exhibit a distinctive nanostructure\nwith nanosized metallic-glasses encapsulated within an interconnected\nnanoamorphous-oxide network. Due to a pronounced nanoconfinement effect,\ncrystallization is significantly suppressed. Consequently, these oxidized\nmetallic-glass nanomembranes initiate a glass transition at 324 K\nat a heating rate of 10 K/min. Remarkably, they also showcase an expansive\nsupercooled liquid region of 448 K, surpassing various metallic and\noxide glasses reported. Furthermore, these nanomembranes not only\nexhibit a low elastic modulus but also achieve superplasticity even\nat room temperature. This unique blend of thermomechanical properties\npositions our metallic-glass based nanomembranes as an ideal candidate\nfor nanofabrication processing, such as nanoimprinting, for the creation\nof next-generation nanodevices.