Formation of Cu–Zr–Ti amorphous powders with B and Si additions by mechanical alloying technique

Abstract

Amorphous Cu-based alloys were successfully synthesized by mechanical alloying mixtures of pure crystalline Cu, Zr, Ti, B and Si powders with a SPEX high-energy ball mill. The structure and thermal stability of these alloys were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimeter. Several amorphous alloy samples were found to exhibit a wide supercooled liquid region before crystallization. The temperature interval of the supercooled liquid region defined by the difference between T g and T x , i.e. Δ T x (= T x − T g), is 72 K for Cu 50Zr 27Ti 20B 3, 77 K for Cu 50Zr 25Ti 20B 5, 85 K for Cu 50Zr 24Ti 20B 5Si 1, and 89 K for Cu 50Zr 20Ti 20B 5Si 5. The results demonstrated that small addition of B and Si significantly improve the glass-forming ability of the Cu-based amorphous alloys.