Crystallization kinetics of Zr60Cu25Fe5Al10 bulk metallic glass

• Kinetic parameters of the Zr60Cu25Fe5Al10 bulk metallic glass were studied.
• The calculated activation energy has temperature dependence.
• The isothermal crystallization followed a nucleation-and-growth mechanism.
• The crystallization mechanism is different at different stages of crystallization.

Crystallization transformation kinetics of the Zr60Cu25Fe5Al10 amorphous alloy under non-isothermal (continuous heating) and isothermal conditions were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Under non-isothermal condition, the activation energies for the glass transition and crystallization at the onset and the peak crystallization temperatures are determined by means of Kissinger plots to be 383 ± 11, 290 ± 7 and 325 ± 13 kJ/mol, respectively. During the isothermal crystallization process, the average activation energy for crystallization deduced by using the Arrhenius equation is about 385 ± 7 kJ/mol, which is larger than that obtained by Kissinger equation. The crystallization mechanism under isothermal condition was investigated by using Johnson–Mehl–Avrami (JMA) equation. The Avrami exponent is mainly in the range of 2.64 to 3.07, which indicates that the crystallization is mainly governed by diffusion-controlled three-dimensional growth with increasing nucleation rate.