Glass-Forming Ability of Fe-Ni Alloys Substituted by Group V and VI Transition Metals (V, Nb, Cr, Mo) Studied by Thermodynamic Modeling

The glass-forming ability (GFA) of Fe-Ni-TM alloys, where TM = V, Nb, Cr, Mo, was determined utilizing thermodynamic modeling. Enthalpies of formation of amorphous state were calculated and analyzed along with normalized mismatch entropy and glass-forming ability parameter. All thermodynamic quantities were qualitatively compared with enthalpies of formation of solid solution and experimental results. Due to the fact that FeNi-based amorphous ribbons are used nowadays in magnetoelastic sensors (MES), which can be used in biomedical or chemical applications, discussion is concentrated mainly on the substitution effect of group V and VI transition metals on the improvement of GFA. In this sense, group V elements are preferred, with Nb as the most promising candidate among all analyzed TM elements. This is a consequence of significant differences of potential and density of electrons at the boundary of Wigner–Seitz cell comparing to Fe and Ni, which in turn leads to more negative values of interfacial enthalpy and higher driving force for vitrification.