Bulk nanostructure formation directly from the multicomponent alloy melt

摘要

The first bulk homogeneous nanocrystalline Zr_(60)Al_(15)Ni_(10)Co_(15) (at. %) alloy prepared by melt casting without the amorphous matrix is reported. In this work, the complete grain refinement directly by solidification processing, when qualitatively compared to the previously reported nanocrystallization by postdevitrification of amorphous alloy solid precursors, produces nanograins that have a relatively narrower size range (7.4 nm in average) and are randomly oriented. The total inhomogeneous chemical affinity of the multicomponent alloy was proposed to thermodynamically favor the three-dimensional nanoscale nucleation from alloy melts. Clustering of different atoms in the ZrAlNiCo alloy occurs while the material is still in the molten state.