Melting zone technique as a tool for a combinatorial approach in material science - I. Application to Al-Co alloys

The melting zone technique can be used in order to obtain the pattern of phase diagrams. Two examples have been investigated. They concern the binary Al-Co and the ternary Al-Co-Fe systems. After a single pass, the phase distribution along the rod was characterized by optical microscopy and microprobe analysis. In this first paper, the results concerning the Al-Co binary system are just presented; they can be expressed in phase diagram terms and when the phase diagram is associated to some properties measured in situ along the rod, this procedure is a good way towards the research of optimized materials. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.