Thermodynamic calculation and experimental investigation of glass formation in Zr–Ni–Ti alloy system

Based on the undercooling theory resulting from the existence of multicomponent chemical short-range order domains, the glass forming range (GFR) in Zr–Ni–Ti alloy system was predicted by thermodynamic calculation. In order to verify the calculated results, a series of alloys Zr90−xNixTi10 (x = 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 at.%) were designed to conduct melt-spinning experiments. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that a fully amorphous structure can be obtained in as-quenched Zr90−xNixTi10 (x = 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 at.%) alloys, while Zr40Ni50Ti10 and Zr35Ni55Ti10 alloys are partially amorphous and fully crystalline, respectively. These experimental results are consistent with the predicted GFR. In addition, the glass forming ability (GFA) was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments and evaluated by a thermodynamic parameter, the reduced undercooling ΔTr.