Investigation on the crystallization process and the nanocrystalline structural of the rapidly solidified Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 alloy

The amorphous Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 alloy was prepared by using a rapid solidification technique. The rapidly quenched alloy was annealed in various temperatures for 60 minutes. This annealing process made a series of partially crystallized samples with different crystallization fractions. The formation of the nanoparticles was observed by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The phases and the compositions were identifed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The microstructure of the annealed samples was composed of nanocrystalline Fe3Si grains surrounded by a residual amorphous phase. The crystallization fraction of the samples was determined by using two methods: cryogenic heat capacity (CHC) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. The first method is a new method and allowed small changes in the amount of the crystalline phase to be determined. There was a difference of about 3% between the CHC and the DSC values.