Compositional dependence of glass-forming ability, medium-range order, thermal stability and liquid fragility of Al–Ni–Ce-based amorphous alloys

Abstract The Al–Ni–Ce-based amorphous alloys are presented to study compositional dependence of glass-forming ability (GFA), crystallization behavior, thermal stability, medium-range order (MRO) and liquid fragility. The GFA of Al 87 Ni 8 Ce 5 and Al 84 Ni 8 Ce 5 X 3 amorphous alloys ranks as follows: Al 84 Ni 8 Ce 5 Co 3  > Al 84 Ni 8 Ce 5 Fe 3  > Al 84 Ni 8 Ce 5 Mg 3  > Al 84 Ni 8 Ce 5 Cu 3  > Al 87 Ni 8 Ce 5  > Al 84 Ni 8 Ce 5 Si 3 , which have the same tendency with the ratio of the prepeak area to the total area of the main peak in the X-ray intensity curve ( S prepeak / S total ). That implies that the GFA has a good relation with the stable MRO structure. Better thermal stability ( E p1 ) and larger activation enthalpy for the glass transition (Δ H * ) corresponds to larger fragility parameter ( m ). That reflects that the thermal stability of metallic glasses and the stability of supercooled liquids are attributed to the strong–fragile characteristics of glass-forming liquids.