The formation and crystallization for amorphous AlFeZr4 prepared by mechanical alloying

Amorphous AlFeZr4 alloy has been prepared from elemental mixture powders by mechanical alloying. The microstructure, thermal stability and morphology of as-milled mixture powders were analyzed by XRD and DTA respectively. Two sequential exothermal peaks exist during the procedure of crystallization. The effective activation energies for crystallization were evaluated according to Kissinger's plot. The crystallization products of as-milled powders annealed at temperature over the crystallization temperature were studied, and the structural characteristic analysis of annealed sample was performed in an X-ray diffractometer. The crystallized phases are composed of FeZr2, AlZr2 and AlFeZr intermetallic compounds. The formation enthalpies for FeZr2, AlZr2 and AlFeZr are calculated from first-principles and Miedema's theory. Based on the calculated formation enthalpies, the products of crystallization for amorphous AlFeZr4 alloy are explained from thermodynamic point of view.