A Comprehensive Study of Sn-Ga2Te3-SnTe Amorphous Alloys: Glass Formation and Crystallization Kinetics

In this paper, newly developed tellurium-based [(Ga2Te3)(34)(SnTe)(66)](100-x)-Sn-x amorphous alloys were prepared by the melt-spun method, with a linear velocity of 40 m/s and injection pressure of 20 kPa under an Ar atmosphere. The glass-forming region was identified in the range of x = 0 to 10 mol%. The glass transition temperature T-g and crystallization onset temperature T-c decreased monotonically with the increasing Sn content in the whole compositional range, resulting in the decrease in the stability criterion Delta T from 33 K (S2) to 23 K (S10). The crystallization kinetics were systematically investigated based on the differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) under non-isothermal conditions. The activation energies of the S8 amorphous sample determined by Kissinger and Ozawa equations were E-g (201.1 similar to 209.6 kJ/mol), E-c (188.7 similar to 198.3 kJ/mol), E-p1 (229.8 similar to 240.1 kJ/mol) and E-p2 (264.2 similar to 272.6 kJ/mol), respectively. The microscopic structure of the S8 amorphous sample and its annealed glass-ceramics were also analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED). The crystalline products were identified as having a SnTe phase (primary crystalline phase) and Ga6SnTe10 phase, thus providing a promising candidate for the development of high-performance thermoelectric glass-ceramic materials.