Calculating formation range of binary amorphous alloys fabricated by electroless plating

Abstract

A lot of amorphous alloy deposits in the binary (Ni, Co, Cu)–(P, B) alloy systems fabricated by electroless plating (EP) have been reported up to date. But no one reported their theoretical modeling of the amorphous formation and calculated their concentration range of amorphous formation (RAF). Using Miedema model and subregular model scheme, the RAFs for the six EP (Ni, Co, Cu)–(P, B) alloys and three Ni–Cu, Ni–Co and Co–Cu alloys have been calculated systematically for the first time. The calculated results are in agreement with experimental observations. Experiments and calculations for the RAFs in the latter three alloy systems reveal that not any RAF formed except crystalline states. The huge difference between the six metal–metalloid alloys and three metal–metal alloys in RAF has been discussed in detail in the paper.