Crystallization behaviour of amorphous Al85Y11Ni4 alloy

The crystallization behaviour and microstructural development during the annealing of amorphous Al85Y11Ni4 ribbons has been investigated by a combination of differential scanning calorimetry, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffractometry. Crystallization of amorphous Al85Y11Ni4 during continuous heating takes place in three stages, with the crystallization temperature increasing with increasing heating rate. Activation energies for the three crystallization peaks determined by the Kissinger and Ozawa methods give good agreement. Isothermal annealing at temperatures in the range 511–523 K shows Johnson-Mehl-Avrami kinetics with an Avrami exponent of 2.0–2.35, in agreement with suggested linear nucleation and three-dimensional diffusion-controlled parabolic growth of dendritic particles.