A thermodynamic approach for predicting the tendency of multicomponent metallic alloys for glass formation

A thermodynamic approach has been used to predict the compositions of Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni alloys exhibiting low-lying-liquidus surfaces which favor glass formation. The idea is to build on all thermodynamic information from the lower order constituent binaries and ternaries to obtain the thermodynamic properties of the multicomponent alloys. These thermodynamic properties enable us to predict those alloy compositions with low-lying-liquidus surfaces. The predicted quaternary alloy compositions com pare favorably with those determined experimentally for bulk glass formation. These results demonstrate that this approach can be used as a valuable tool for predicting alloy compositions of multicomponent systems as potential materials for glass formation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.