Temperature dependence of the crystal-melt interfacial energy of metals

A model to express the dependence of the crystal-melt interfacial energy on the temperature for metals is proposed. The crystal-melt interfacial energies, the homogeneous nucleation undercoolings and the critical cooling rates to form ideal metallic glasses of silver, copper and nickel have been predicted according to the present model and simulated by the molecular dynamics method. The results show that the crystal-melt interfacial energy of metals increases nonlinearly with temperature. Over a wide temperature range from the melting point to the glass transition temperature the predicted results for the crystal melt interfacial energy, the homogeneous nucleation undercooling and the critical cooling rate to form ideal metallic glasses from the present crystal-melt interfacial energy model are in good agreement with the experimental results reported, as well as the results of molecular dynamics simulations based on different EAM potentials of the metals. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.