Abstract
Rapidly solidified ribbons from the nanocrystal-forming Zr60Cu20Pd10Al10 alloy prepared at various melting liquid temperatures were used to study the influence of the liquid state upon quenched-in nuclei. With lowering quenching liquid temperatures, the small-angle x-ray scattering shows increased related periodic composition fluctuations and the radial distribution function analysis from x-ray diffraction method reveals that the coordination number of Pd around Zr increases. These results provide evidence for the stronger attractive interaction in Zr–Pd, which exhibits large negative mixing enthalpy, leads to the formation of (Zr, Pd)-rich domains of short-range order in the liquid. They remain in the amorphous phase as quenched-in nuclei and therefore contribute to nanocrystalline formation.
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