Mixing effects in a ternary Hf-Zr-Ni metallic melt

We study the effect of the substitution of Zr by Hf on the dynamical behavior in the Zr36Ni64 melt. A reduced measured self-diffusion coefficient and a higher measured melt viscosity for an increased amount of Hf were observed. The ternary Hf10Zr25Ni65 melt, which exhibits a pronounced deviation from Arrhenius behavior over a studied temperature range of 550 K, can be accurately described by the scaling law of mode-coupling theory (MCT) with almost equal parameters for the self-diffusion and the viscosity. Although we only substitute alloy components with a nearly equal atomic size and the measured overall packing fraction remains almost unchanged, the dynamics in Hf10Zr25Ni65 are slower compared to Zr36Ni64. This corresponds also to a higher critical temperature T-c and might be induced by different chemical interactions in the melts. The increased T-c results in a significantly smaller difference between liquidus and critical temperature Delta T-LC = T-L - T-c for the ternary melt in comparison with Zr36Ni64, which may favor the glass formation in the Hf10Zr25Ni65 melt.