Glass formation in mechanically alloyed Zn-Zr alloy

An amorphous Zn 60 Zr 40 alloy was synthesized for the first time by mechanical alloying of pure elemental powders of Zn and Zr using a planetary high-energy ball mill. The structure and thermal behaviour were analysed by X-ray diffraction and differential thermal analysis. The result indicates that the large negative enthalpy of formation of Zn-Zr provides the necessary driving force for solid-state amorphization. In addition, the realization of the amorphization of Zn-Zr shows that Zn is a fast-moving species in host Zr although the ratio of V imp (Zn)/V(Zr) is larger than the critical value of the Zr-TM (3d) system, 0.58. The activation energy of crystallization of the glass is about 3.068 eV.