Glass forming ability of Zr-based Zr–Cu–Ni–Al–(Ag) alloys

A series of Zr-based glasses has been obtained by rapid melt quenching and their thermal characteristics (Tg, Tx, Tl) were determined by DSC/DTA. Some of the most recognized glass forming ability (GFA) criteria were applied to predict the glass forming ability of the alloys and to study its dependence on the alloy composition. As a result, the best glass forming compositions among the studied alloys could be selected. It was found that as a general trend an increase of the Zr content results in Tx and ΔTx (= Tx − Tg) decrease. The determined liquidus temperatures of chosen compositions with substantially different ΔTx were found to vary relatively little. Therefore, it was concluded that the variation in the GFA of the studied alloys is mainly due to difficulties in the crystallization process, rather than to different stability of the melts.