Crystallization study of amorphous Al87.5Ni7Mm5Fe0.5 alloy by electrical resistivity measurement

Electrical resistivity measurement has been used to study the crystallization in amorphous Al87.5Ni7Mm5Fe0.5 alloy. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and resistivity measurement showed that the alloy undergoes a three-stage crystallization process compared to the two-stage crystallization behaviour in many metallic glasses. The first and second peaks around 425 and 609 K, respectively, correspond to the precipitation of fcc-Al and Al11(La,Ce)3 phases. The activation energy for the formation of Al11(La,Ce)3 phase has been found to be 153±5.3 kJ/mol. The Avrami exponent is in the range of 1.50–1.76 indicating a three-dimensional growth mechanism with a decreasing nucleation rate.