Crystallization of Al2FeZr6 Amorphous Alloy Prepared by Mechanical Alloying

Amorphous Al2FeZr6 alloy was prepared from elemental powders by mechanical alloying. The microstructure evolution was identified by X-ray diffraction. The thermal stability of amorphous Al2FeZr6 was determined by DTA. There are two overlapped exothermic peaks observed in curves of DTA. This indicates that two exothermic reactions in the procedure of crystallization of amorphous Al2FeZr6 alloy. The effective activation energies of crystallization were evaluated using Kissingerʹs plot. The evaluated values of effective activation energy corresponding to the first and the second exothermic reactions are 266 and 299 kJ/mole respectively. The products of crystallization of amorphous Al2FeZr6 alloy are binary intermetallic compounds AlZr2 and FeZr2 instead of intermetallic compounds Al2FeZr6. It was explained by comparing their relative stabilities based on enthalpies of formation of intermetallic compounds.