The worldʹs biggest glassy alloy ever made

With the aim of obtain the worldʹs biggest glassy alloy, a molten Pd42.5Cu30Ni7.5P20 alloy with a total weight of 3432 g was water-quenched in a quartz tube. As a result, a cylindrical glassy alloy sample with a diameter of 80 mm and a length of 85 mm was successfully obtained. X-ray diffraction measurements for crashed fragments reveal that the obtained whole sample is vitrified into complete glassy state except for little irregular region of the bubble surface. In addition, differential scanning calorimetry measurements also reveal that the sample has quite homogeneous structure and stable thermal characteristics. In order to estimate a cooling rate for each location of the sample, finite-difference-method calculations using physical properties previously reported were carried out. The calculations exhibited good agreements with previous results and the present experimental results, verifying the validity of the calculations.