Soft Magnetic Bulk Glassy Alloy Synthesized by Flux Melting and Water Quenching

Abstract

The flux treatment was applied to increase the glass-forming ability of a glassy [(Fe0.5Co0.5)0.75B0.20Si0.05]96Nb4 alloy. The large bulk glassy specimen with diameter of 7.7 mm was prepared by water quenching the melt immersed in the molten flux of B2O3. The diameter of the specimens is approximately 1.5 times as large as the previous result, even though the cooling rate of copper mold casting should be much higher than that of water quenching. The critical cooling rate for a glassy phase is 150 - 170 K/s, which is much slower than 500 K/s without the flux treatment. The flux treatment improves the glass-forming ability by cleaning the molten metal where heterogeneous nucleation is difficult to take place.