Remelting treatment and heredity phenomenon in the formation of Fe78Si9B13 amorphous alloy

The microstructures of Fe78Si9B13 ingots including the primary master alloy (PMA) and secondary melted alloy (SMA), as well as the precipitates in the annealed amorphous ribbons spun from PMA and SMA ingots have been investigated. The presented data show that SMA ingot performances a better glass forming ability (GFA) than PMA ingot, indicating that remelting treatment can improve the GFA of Fe78Si9B13 alloy. The metastable Fe23B6 phase forms in SMA ribbons after annealing at 600 degrees C and 700 degrees C. The lattice parameter a(0) of alpha-Fe in the annealed SMA ribbons is higher than that in the annealed PMA ribbons, similar to the higher a(0) of alpha-Fe in SMA ingot than that in PMA ingot. The variation of lattice parameter a(0) of alpha-Fe in the present ingots and annealed ribbons shows a heredity phenomenon, which is closely associated with the Fe23B6 structural units (distorted tri-capped trigonal prism clusters) in the melts. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.