Nanocrystalline microstructures in Fe93-xZr7Bx alloys

Abstract

The crystallization behaviour of amorphous Fe93-xZr7Bx (x = 3, 6, 12 at.%) alloys, the microstructures of the primary crystallization products of stable and metastable phases and the subsequent transformations, have been studied using a combination of differential scanning calorimetry, differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, including microdiffraction. It has been found that, for x = 3 and 6 at.%, the sole product of primary crystallization is the bcc α-Fe phase and the average grain sizes of the crystalline phase were 14 nm and 12 nm for the two alloys, respectively. However, when x = 12 at.%, primary crystallization results in more than one cr..