Glass forming abilities and crystallization process in amorphous Pr-Fe-Co-Zr-Nb-B alloys of various B content

The influence of boron contents on the glass forming abilities and magnetic properties of melt-spun ribbon samples produced from Pr₉Fe_{50+x}Co₁₃Zr₁Nb₄B_{23-x} (x=0, 2, 5, 8) alloys, were investigated. For all compositions, the rapidly solidified samples were fully amorphous, which was confirmed by X-ray diffractometry and the Mössbauer spectroscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry and differential thermal analysis studies revealed good glass forming abilities for all investigated specimens and allowed to determine thermal stability parameters of the amorphous phase. For all alloy ribbons, very large supercooled liquid region before crystallization ΔT_x reaching 100 K was measured. The Kissinger plots were constructed to determine the activation energies for crystallization. Annealing of specimens at temperatures ranging from 923 K to 1033 K for 5 min resulted in significant change of the phase constitution. The X-ray diffractometry studies have shown presence of hard magnetic Pr₂(Fe,Co)₁₄B and paramagnetic Pr_{1+x}Fe₄B₄ phases. Furthermore, with the increase of B contents in the alloy composition crystallization of α-Fe phase occurs at wider range of the annealing temperature. Anomaly of both thermal and magnetic properties was observed for the Pr₉Fe₅₂Co₁₃Zr₁Nb₄B₂₁ alloy ribbons