On the determination of the crystallization activation energy of metallic glasses

The dependence of the crystallization temperature on the heating rate was measured for five conventional melt spun metallic glasses. The results obtained, together with similar data taken from the literature, were analyzed using the Kissinger method. It is shown that application of this method to glass transition and crystallization of metallic glasses leads to unreasonably high apparent attempt frequencies, by many orders of magnitude above the Debye frequency. It is concluded, in accordance with some remarks available in the literature, that this method gives obscure values of the activation parameters of glass transition and crystallization of metallic glasses. A simple equation for approximate estimate of the crystallization onset activation energy of metallic glasses is proposed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)09412-3].