Formation and crystallization of an amorphous Al80Fe10Ti5Ni3B2 alloy

In this study, we investigated the crystallization behavior of an Al80Fe10Ti5Ni3B2 amorphous alloy (obtained by mechanical alloying) using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transition electron microscopy (TEM), and differential thermal analysis (DTA) techniques. The obtained results show that an amorphous phase formed during mechanical alloying (for 40 h) of the Al-10%Fe-5%Ti-3%Ni-2% B powder mixture. It was found that the Al80Fe10Ti5Ni3B2 amorphous alloy exhibits one-stage crystallization when heated (amorphous to Al13Fe4, Al5Fe2 and AlFe intermetallic phases). The activation energy for the crystallization, evaluated from the Kissinger equation, was about 242 +/- 5 kJ/mol. We also discuss kinetic parameters such as the Avarmi exponent and reaction order (n). The results show that only one three-dimensional diffusion-controlled growth mechanism was working during the amorphous-glass process of the investigated glass.