Devitrification behavior and glass-forming ability of Cu–Zr–Ag alloys

This paper presents an influence of Ag addition on the glass-forming ability and devitrification behavior of Cu–Zr glassy alloys on heating. The crystallization kinetics and structure changes in Cu45Zr45Ag10 and Cu35Zr45Ag20 glassy alloys on heating were studied by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, differential scanning and isothermal calorimetry methods. Based on the results obtained one can assume that the improvement of the glass-forming ability of the Cu–Zr alloys by the addition of Ag is connected with a particular crystallization mechanism and a higher reduced glass-transition temperature of the Cu45Zr45Ag10 ternary alloy compared to the binary Cu55Zr45 counterpart. As observed in the present work crystallization of the Cu–Zr–Ag alloys is found to cause embitterment of the samples and should be avoided as these alloys are considered to be used as structural materials. The Cu35Zr45Ag20 alloy shows possible submicron-scale phase separation upon annealing.