Micro-crystalline C14 Laves phase in melt-spun AB2 type Zr-based alloy

The single phase of micro-crystalline C14 Laves of Zr0.7Ti0.3(NiVMnCr)2.1 alloy was successfully prepared by melt-spinning processing with a certain cooling rate. The investigation with XRD Rietveld analysis and TEM showed that micro-crystalline C14 Laves phase had a unique microstructure, the grain was composed of staked c-axis textured thin plates which contained a lot of crystallites with the mean size of about 3.1×3.1×1 nm3. The electrochemical measurement showed that it had longer cycle life, more activation cycles and lower discharge capacity than those of conventional mixture C14+C15 Laves phase.