- Alloys are metals made by combining two or more metallic elements in such a way that they cannot be readily separated by physical means, especially to give greater strength or resistance to corrosion.
- More than 90% of metals used are in the form of alloys. Eg: Steel, stainless steel, 18-carat gold etc.
- Certain combinations of elements, when heated and cooled to specific temperatures at specific rates, result in materials with unusual plasticity and strength.
- An amorphous metal (also known metallic glass or glassy metal) is an alloy with a disordered atomic-scale structure. Most metals are crystalline in and 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. There are several ways in which amorphous metals can be produced, including extremely rapid cooling, physical vapor deposition, solid-state reaction, ion irradiation, and mechanical alloying.