Effects of Microalloying on Glass Forming Ability and Thermodynamic Fragility of Cu-Pr-Based Amorphous Alloys

The effects of microalloying of Ti and B on the glass formation of Cu60Pr30Ni10Al10–2xTixBx(x = 0, 0.05%(atom fraction) amorphous alloys was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD analysis showed that microalloying with 0.05% Ti and 0.05% B improved the glass forming ability (GFA). The smaller difference in the Gibbs free energy between the liquid and crystalline states at the glass transition temperature (ΔG1-x(Tg) and the smaller thermodynamic fragility index (ΔSf/Tm, where ΔSf is the entropy of fusion, and Tm is the melting temperature) after microalloying correlated with the higher GFA.