Crystallization kinetics of Zr60Cu25Fe5Al10 bulk metallic glass

Crystallization transformation kinetics of the Zr60Cu25Fe5Al10 amorphous alloy under non-isothermal (continuous heating) and isothermal conditions were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Under non-isothermal condition, the activation energies for the glass transition and crystallization at the onset and the peak crystallization temperatures are determined by means of Kissinger plots to be 383 +/- 11,290 +/- 7 and 325 +/- 13 kJ/mol, respectively. During the isothermal crystallization process, the average activation energy for crystallization deduced by using the Arrhenius equation is about 385 +/- 7 kJ/mol, which is larger than that obtained by Kissinger equation. The crystallization mechanism under isothermal condition was investigated by using Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (JMA) equation. The Avrami exponent is mainly in the range of 2.64 to 3.07, which indicates that the crystallization is mainly governed by diffusion-controlled three-dimensional growth with increasing nucleation rate. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.