Thermal stability and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of Pd82Si18 amorphous ribbon

Rapidly quenched Pd82Si18 ribbon was prepared by melt spinning. The thermal stability and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of Pd82Si18 amorphous ribbon were investigated by differential scanning calorimeter measurements. Its structure was investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electronic microscopy. The activation energy was calculated by the Kissinger method, and the nucleation and growth during non-isothermal crystallization were investigated by the local activation energy and local Avrami exponent. The average activation energy for Pd82Si18 amorphous ribbon based on the Kissinger method is 330.672 kJ/mol, indicating that it has high thermal stability. The local activation energy of the glass ribbon was determined by the Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose method, and the local Avrami exponent was obtained based on the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami model. The calculated local activation energy increases to a maximum when the crystallization column fraction reaches 0.3, and it then decreases, which shows that crystallization is a multistep process. The local Avrami exponent indicates that the crystallization process of Pd82Si18 amorphous ribbon is controlled by volume nucleation with three-dimensional growth at various nucleation rates.