Predicting the thermal stability of RE-based bulk metallic glasses

The Gibbs free energy of formation of amorphous alloy, ΔGa has been calculated, for some typical bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). The strong negative linear relationship between crystallization temperature Tx and ΔGa has been found, and hence ΔGa can be used as an efficient parameter to evaluate and predict the thermal stability of rare earth (RE)-based BMGs, in a narrow composition region of the same alloy system. The origin of the strong linear relationship has also been discussed.