Prediction of elemental glass-transition temperatures of metals from thermophysical properties of liquids

Abstract

Since extremely high quench rates (1012 to 1014 K/s) are normally necessary to form elemental metallic glasses, very few are known. Even when synthesized, very little is known about their properties because of the limited quantities of material produced under such extreme conditions. In particular, the glass transition temperature, Tg, of most of the elemental glasses are unknown. Here, predictions of Tg for many elemental metals are made based on the properties of the liquids. The basis for these predictions comes from a number of recently observed correlations in metallic alloy liquids between the liquid fragility, thermal expansion coefficient, rate of change of liquid structure with temperature, and cohesive energy. Using those quantitative correlations and the properties of elemental liquids, Tg′s for several metallic elements are predicted. Where experimental data are available, they are in reasonable agreement with these predictions. Keywords: Elemental metals, Glass transition temperatures, Metallic glasses