Enhancement of La addition on glass forming ability and thermal stability of Al85Ni7Er8 − xLax (x = 0–4) glassy alloys

• We optimized glass forming ability and thermal stability by adding La in the Al85Ni7Er8-xLax (x=0, 1, 2, 3, 4) alloys.
• Al85Ni7Er4La4 possessed the widest supercooled liquid region ΔTx (26.6 K).
• Al85Ni7Er4La4 also exhibited the largest crystallization activation energies Eg (446.6 kJ/mol) and Ep1 (439.8 kJ/mol).

We optimized the alloy compositions by adding La content in the Al85Ni7Er8 − xLax (x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) alloys to improve the glass forming ability (GFA) and thermal stability. When increasing the La content x from 0 to 4, the glass transition temperature, Tg, and the crystallization temperature, Tx, of melt-spun Al85Ni7Er8 − xLax (x = 0–4) alloys increased from 531 and 555.4 K to 550.5 and 577.1 K, respectively. The Al85Ni7Er8 − xLax (x = 0–4) alloys exhibited high reduced glass transition temperature Trg (= Tg / Tl, with Tl is the liquidus temperature) (> 0.44), and a wide supercooled liquid region, ΔTx (= Tx − Tg) (> 24.3 K). Meanwhile, Al85Ni7Er8 − xLax (x = 0–4) alloys exhibited high crystallization activation energies (384.5–439.8 kJ/mol), exhibiting excellent thermal stability.