Exploration of a new method in determining the glass transition temperature of BMGs by electrical resistivity

Based on a brief retrospect of the method in establishing Tg of the bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), some perplexities concerning this are pointed out. With the experimental results of Zr–Al–Ni–Cu–X (Nb,Ti) BMGs, a electrical resistivity method is proposed to determine the glass transition temperature of BMGs. With the method, we define two kinds of characteristic temperature related to the glass transition, Tg-dep and Tg-int, respectively. By comparing Tg-dep and Tg-int with Tg determined by the DSC method, we have found that, for the same alloy at the same heating rate, Tg-dep is very close to Tg-onset while Tg-int is approximate to Tg-mid. As a method to determine the glass transition temperature, the electrical resistivity method has proved to be more convenient and practical in comparison with the DSC method, especially when the DSC curve cannot show the glass transition character of BMGs. In addition, we would emphasize that when we refer to Tg, it is necessary to expatiate on the way of denoting the glass transition temperature, such as Tg-dep or Tg-int (Tg-onset or Tg-mid), and on the heating rate, in order to avoid ambiguity.