Calorimetric and structural analyses of mechanically alloyed and rapidly quenched Zr-Ni-Al alloys

Mechanical alloying and rapid quenching from the melt are used to form Zr-Ni-Al amorphous alloys. An experimental investigation of the amorphous to crystalline transformation is carried out using differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and microprobe analysis. The experiments are managed to analyse and correlate the results both for mechanically alloyed powders and rapidly quenched ribbons: (i) a preliminary analysis of the kinetics of relaxation and crystallization, (ii) a connection between the final crystallized phases and the equilibrium ternary phase diagram.