New Icosahedral and Amorphous Phases in Mg-Al-Ag System Prepared by Liquid Quenching

Abstract

New icosahedral (I) and amorphous (Am) phases in the Mg-Al-Ag system have been produced by liquid quenching. Their formation extends in wide ranges of 30 to 67%Al and 3 to 30%Ag for the I-phase and 5 to 30%Al and 3 to 30%Ag for the Am-phase. Thus, the change of the ratio of Al to Al+Mg brings about a drastic structural change. The decomposition temperature and electrical resistivity at 273 K are 435 to 540 K and about 130 µΩcm for the I-phase and 352 to 412 K and about 80 µΩcm for the Am-phase and the I-phase alloys have a higher thermal stability and higher resistivity than the amorphous alloys.