Amorphous alloys have high tensile strength and easy soft magnetization, and are corrosion-resistant. As conventional amorphous alloy strips are mainly produced by the single rolling method, their thickness is less than 100 µm and their width is less than 200 mm. By combining ultra-rapid cooling, large-scale thermal spraying and warm rolling, the world’s first ever amorphous alloy strips were produced with thickness exceeding 300 µm and width exceeding 300 mm.

The fragility of materials should be related to a local structure formed in supercooled liquid states. Especially, in the cases of metallic glasses, the icosahedral order formation is considered to play an important role. To clarify the relation between the local structure formation and the relaxation behavior (or fragility) in the supercooled liquid states of metallic glasses, molecular dynamics simulations were performed for a simple model of binary alloys, in which we can change the atomic size ratio. From the simulation results, we found that the icosahedral clusters exist in supercooled liquid states and form a medium-range network structure in strongly supercooled regime near the glass transition as well as in the glassy states. We also found that the number density of the clusters increases as the atomic size difference increases. Consequently, the calculated fragility parameter takes a lower value in a system with larger atomic size difference due to the richness of the icosahedral clusters.

In view of the finding that dry seeds may exist in the glassy state, a brief review of the commonest methods of detection and quantification of the glass transition is presented. While the glassy state may contribute to seed tolerance of desiccation, it does not appear to account for desiccation tolerance. Its major function in dry seeds may be its contribution to the stability of the seed components during storage.

An element of storage stability of many orthodox seeds is that the embryo cytoplasm is vitreous at normal storage temperatures. That is, as drying proceeds during seed maturation, intracellular solutions become so concentrated and viscous that diffusional movement is all but eliminated (Williams and Leopold, 1989). In this report the relationship between desiccation tolerance and the ability to form the vitreous state as germination proceeds is examined. As pea seeds (Pisum sativum cv. Alaska) imbibed water up to 18 h, no change in the glass transition temperature was seen, and the embryos remained desiccation-tolerant. Between 18 and 44 h of imbibition, the axes lost the ability to exhibit a distinguishable vitreous transition, and the embryos had lost the ability to survive desiccation. After about 50 h, embryos again showed vitrification but only at markedly lower temperatures, as would be expected to accompany the loss of oligosaccharides (sucrose, raffinose, stachyose and verbascose) and their replacement by monosaccharides during early germination (Koster and Leopold, 1988). Thus, the loss of desiccation tolerance during germination in pea seeds appears to be associated with a loss of the high temperature oligosaccharide: water glass and a subsequent appearance of a new glass transition at a lower temperature resulting from the accumulation of monosacchrides.

Osmotic priming in a polyethylene glycol solution (300 g/kg water) for 48 h resulted in a partial loss of desiccation tolerance for seeds of Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek (mung bean). The percentage of germination began to decrease after primed seeds were dried down to water contents less than 0.06 g/g DW. As compared with control seeds, primed mung bean seeds also had poorer storage stability. The decline of storage stability after osmotic priming was correlated with the modifications of seed water sorption properties. Priming significantly increased the amount of water associated with the weak water-binding sites, and reduced the amount of water associated with the strong binding sites and multi-molecular binding sites in seed tissues. The enhancement of molecular mobility in seeds, as a result of such water redistribution, probably accelerates seed deterioration and decreases storage stability.

A hard magnetic Nd50Al15Fe15Co20 bulk metallic glass (BMG) was prepared in the shape of a rod up to 3 mm in diameter by suction casting. The glass transition and crystallization behaviors as well as their kinetic nature have been studied. In contrast to the previously reported hard magnetic Nd–Al–Fe–Co BMGs, Nd50Al15Fe15Co20 as-cast rod exhibits a distinct glass transition and multistep crystallization behaviors in the differential scanning calorimetry traces and lower coercivity. The BMG provides an ideal model for the investigation of glass transition and crystallization of hard magnetic Nd–Al–Fe–Co glass-forming alloys.

Although adhesives, particularly those based on epoxy resins, are finding increasing use in structural applications, their utilization at elevated temperature (>150°C) has been limited by their relatively poor thermal and thermo-oxidative stability. As a result, significant effort has been directed in recent years toward the development of polymers exhibiting increased thermal resistance. Although a wealth of research conducted over several decades has resulted in a myriad of polymer types exhibiting, in some cases, impressive high-temperature performance, many systems have demonstrated poor processability Thus, much emphasis has been placed on developing high-temperature performance while providing processability characteristics that are similar, if not identical, to epoxies. This article considers the various approaches that have been shown to offer such dual capabilities. In addition, the results of various studies undertaken to investigate the effects of elevated temperature on the strength and fatigue resistance of bonded joints are reported.