Crystallization behavior of novel amorphous Al85Mg10Ce5 alloy

Abstract Novel amorphous Al 85 Mg 10 Ce 5 alloys have been obtained originally by melt spinning. Microstructure changes of these ribbons that are annealed at different temperatures were systematically investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The whole crystallization behavior which occurred from 165 to 530 °C was formed by three stages. The single Al 12 Mg 17 phase is primarily formed in a supercooled liquid region, which is different from the fact that fcc-Al usually formed first. The fcc-Al and a metastable phase crystallized in the first stage after that. In the second stage Al 11 Ce 3 , Al 3 Ce and another metastable phase were formed. The third exothermal peek attributes to the crystallization of the metastable phase. The radius of Mg atoms is found to be the main factor that causes primarily crystallization from the amorphous matrix.