Atomization and characterization of a glass forming alloy {(Fe0.6Co0.4)0.75B0.2Si0.05}96Nb4

• Production of iron-based glassy particles with a defined amorphous fraction
• Crystallization started at the edge of the atomized particles.
• The critical cooling rate was computed to be about 5000 Ks− 1.
• Activation energy decreased with increasing crystalline fraction.
• Hardness of the powder decreased with an increasing crystalline fraction.

Metallic glasses require high cooling rates and are therefore generally constrained to small product dimensions. To overcome these limitations, atomization techniques are promising methods to fabricate larger, fully or partially amorphous materials through subsequent metallurgy processing.In this paper, the characterization of iron-based glassy powders, {(Fe0.6Co0.4)0.75B0.2Si0.05}96Nb4 (at.%), formed by using Impulse Atomization (IA) is compared with powder generated by using gas atomization (GA).To quantify the amorphous fraction of IA atomized powder samples, the enthalpy of crystallization for the gas atomized sample was determined. The powders were also characterized by using light microscopy, SEM, XRD, Micro-Vickers hardness tests and DSC. Several isochronal DSC/DPSC measurements were performed at different heating rates to determine the thermal stability and crystallization kinetics of glassy powder samples using the Kissinger approach.The glassy powder samples exhibited high thermal stability against crystallization. The critical cooling rate was computed to be approximately 5000 Ks− 1. The Micro-Vickers hardness measured in the amorphous region was about 1200–1250 HV using 100 mN load.