Evaluation of the thermal stability of Nd60Al20Co20 bulk metallic glass

Abstract

Long-term thermal stability of Nd60Al20Co20 bulk metallic glass (BMG) with excellent glass forming ability was investigated by Kissinger and Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) analyses, respectively. The heating rate dependence of crystallization temperature of the BMG was found to follow the VFT nonlinear relationship rather than Kissinger’s linear fittings. It is suggested that the continuous heating crystallization diagrams obtained from VFT equation should be more adequate to estimate the long-term thermal stability of Nd60Al20Co20 bulk metallic glass according to the time-temperature-transformation diagram based on isothermal annealing.