In-situ monitoring the structural pathway of a Ti-based alloy from metallic liquid to metallic glass

Date published

2025-04-25

Free to read from

2025-04-16

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Department

Type

Article

ISSN

0925-8388

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Citation

Georgarakis K, Stiehler ME, Hennet L, et al., (2025) In-situ monitoring the structural pathway of a Ti-based alloy from metallic liquid to metallic glass. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Volume 1025, April 2025, Article number 180214

Abstract

A metallic glass is formed when a molten metallic alloy is cooled rapidly enough that crystallisation is avoided. However, the way the atomic structure of the liquid converts to that of the glass is generally unknown. The main challenge is the sufficiently fast experimental acquisition of structural data in the undercooled liquid regime necessitated by the high cooling rates needed to avoid crystallisation. In the present study, using aerodynamic levitation, the Ni-free Ti-based alloy Ti40Zr10Cu34Pd14Sn2 was vitrified in-situ in a high-energy synchrotron X-ray beam while diffraction data were acquired during cooling from above the liquidus temperature Tliq to well below the glass-transition temperature Tg. The structure in the undercooled liquid regime shows an accelerated evolution. Both the local order in the short (SRO) and medium range (MRO) increases rapidly as the undercooled liquid approaches Tg, below which the amorphous structure “freezes”. Nevertheless, distinct differences between the evolution of SRO and MRO were observed. The structural rearrangements in the undercooled liquid are found to be correlated with a rapid increase in viscosity of the metallic liquid upon cooling. The new findings shed light on the evolution of the atomic structure of metallic liquids during vitrification and the structural origins of the sluggish kinetics that suppress nucleation and growth of crystalline phases.

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Software Description

Software Language

Github

Keywords

40 Engineering, 4016 Materials Engineering, 51 Physical Sciences, Materials, 4016 Materials engineering, 5104 Condensed matter physics, Metallic glasses, Vitrification, Atomic structure, Levitation, Synchrotron radiation, Structure formation

DOI

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Attribution 4.0 International

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Funder/s

Financial support by the ‘‘BioTiNet’’ EU Initial Training Network (ITN) (Grant agreement ID: 264635), the JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number: 15K18201) as well as the EPSRC-DTP studentship “Bulk Metallic Glasses: Revealing the Structural Pathway of Liquid Metals to Vitrification” (project reference 2043971) within the framework of the EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership with Cranfield University (EP/N509450/1) is gratefully acknowledged. MES thankfully acknowledges the support by a Cranfield University 75th Anniversary Research Fellowship.