Thermal and mechanical behaviors of Cu-Zr amorphous alloys

Abstract

The thermal and mechanical properties of 1 mm diameter rod specimens were investigated over a wide composition range of the Cu-Zr binary alloy system. Our results indicated that alloys with composition near Cu-36 at.% Zr have a higher activation energy and a lower plastic deformation during compression test than those of compositions near Cu-50 at.% Zr. A relationship between the activation energy and the plastic deformation could be worked out suggesting that the lower is the activation energy to crystallization, the larger is the plastic deformation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.