Influence of the liquid states on the crystallization process of nanocrystal-forming Zr–Cu–Pd–Al metallic glasses

Rapidly solidified ribbons of nanocrystal-forming Zr–Cu–Pd–Al metallic glasses were prepared at various liquid temperatures ${\mathrm{(T}}_L\mathrm{).}$ Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) traces show clearly the influence of the liquid states on the thermal properties and crystallization process. Namely, with increasing $T_L,$ the exothermal peaks of the DSC traces shift to higher temperatures, the super-cooled-liquid region ${\mathrm{\Delta T}}_x$ increases, and the decomposition of the metastable compound ${\mathrm{Zr}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{(Cu, Pd)}$ becomes more difficult. These results suggest that the liquid state strongly controls the crystallization process of the nanocrystal-forming metallic glasses. This behavior may originate from the variation of the quenched-in nuclei, which highly depends on the short-range-order domains in liquid with different $T_L.$ We suggest that the stronger attractive interaction in Zr–Pd, which exhibits large negative mixing enthalpy, leads to the short-range order domains.