Microstructure of Zr-Al-Cu-Ni-Ag ingot and the thermal stability of corresponding glass

Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu12.5Ag5 ingots with different microstructures are obtained by changing the number of the repeated arc melting times. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) traces show that when the microstructure of the mother ingot becomes finer, the thermal stability of the glass), alloy improves during the crystallization of the glass. Because of the structure heredity, the finer the mother ingot microstructure is, the smaller the average size of the (Zr.Ag)-rich short-range orders in the glassy alloy is. The decrease of the size of the short-range orders makes the rearrangement of the elements more difficult in the glassy alloy. As a result, the activation energy for precipitation and decomposition of the I-phase becomes higher.