The Effect of Sn on the Glass Formation Ability of the Zr-based Amorphous Alloy

In commercial Zr-Nb-Cu-Ni-Al amorphous alloys, expensive element, Zr, was substituted to Sn which was cheaper one, and then, glass forming ability, compressive strength and hardness of them were estimated. Even though the Sn was added up to 1.5%, resulting phase was not changed to the crystalline form. It was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and thermal analyses. In the X-ray profiles, there were no peaks for crystalline phases and typical halo pattern for amorphous phase was appeared at the diffraction angle of 35o~45o. Thermal analyses also showed that the Sn modified alloys were corresponded to the amorphous standards where ∆T(= Tx − Tg) and Trg(= Tg/Tm) affecting to the amorphous forming ability were more than 50K and 0.60 respectively. Compressive strengths were 1.77 GPa, 1.63 GPa, 1.65 GPa and 1.77 GPa for 0%Sn, 0.5%Sn, 1.0%Sn and 1.5%Sn respectively. Hardnesses of the Sn modified alloys were decreased from 752 Hv to 702 Hv in 1.0%Sn and recovered to 746 Hv in 1.5%Sn.