A “universal” criterion for metallic glass formation

We have established a generally applicable criterion for the critical cooling rates Rc needed for the formation of metallic glasses, based on thermodynamic and kinetic properties of ten categories of metal-based alloys ranging from binary to multicomponent systems. Rc is found to depend on several fundamental properties of materials including the glass transition temperature (normalized with respect to the liquidus temperature), entropy of fusion, and kinetic fragility. Such a relation reproduces the experimental Rc values of 43 metallic glasses remarkably well with a R2 value of 0.94. The explanation of Rc provides guidance in search of metallic glasses.