Sellers ME, Van Hoesen DC, Gangopadhyay AK, Kelton KF. Maximum supercooling studies in Ti
39.5Zr
39.5Ni
21, Ti
40Zr
30Ni
30, and Zr
80Pt
20 liquids-Connecting liquid structure and the nucleation barrier.
J Chem Phys 2019;
150:204510. [PMID:
31153161 DOI:
10.1063/1.5096188]
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Abstract
Almost three quarters of a century ago, Charles Frank proposed that the deep supercooling observed in metallic liquids is due to icosahedral short-range order (ISRO), which is incompatible with the long-range order of crystal phases. Some evidence in support of this hypothesis had been published previously. However, those studies were based on a small population of maximum supercooling measurements before the onset of crystallization. Here, the results of a systematic statistical study of several hundred maximum supercooling measurements on Ti39.5Zr39.5Ni21, Ti40Zr30Ni30, and Zr80Pt20 liquids are presented. Previous X-Ray and neutron scattering studies have shown that the structures of these liquid alloys contain significant amounts of ISRO. The results presented here show a small work of critical cluster formation (W* = 31-40 kBT) from the analysis of the supercooling data for the Ti39.5Zr39.5Ni21 liquid, which crystallizes to a metastable icosahedral quasicrystal. A much larger value (W* = 54-79 kBT and W* = 60-99 kBT) was obtained for the Ti40Zr30Ni30 and Zr80Pt20 liquids, respectively, which do not crystallize to an icosahedral quasicrystal. Taken together, these results significantly strengthen the validity of Frank's hypothesis.
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