Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1600981 | Intermetallics | 2010 | 6 Pages |
Abstract
Molecular dynamics methods have been employed to investigate the structural stability at 300Â K of nanometer-sized particles of a Cu-Mg metallic glass in the size range between 1 and 6Â nm. All the particles considered undergo a crystallization process the rate of which depends on the system size. On the contrary, the amorphous structure of the corresponding massive system is stable at 300Â K. The final products of the crystallization process of the nanometer-sized particles are similar to the ones obtained from the crystallization of the massive system at 600Â K, also studied for comparison. The mechanistic features are instead different and point out a relationship between particle size and crystallization rate. Such relationship indicates that crystallization spontaneously occurs at 300Â K only for particles with radius smaller than about 10Â nm. In turn, this suggests that a minimum size exists below which the amorphous structure is no longer stable.
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Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Metals and Alloys
Authors
Francesco Delogu,