PARAMETERS THAT DETERMINE THE KINETICS OF GLASS-FORMATION IN THE PRESENCE OF PERTURBING NANOPARTICLES

The hindering of crystallization upon the addition to metal alloys of perturbing nanoparticles is theoretically analyzed. It is shown that t he effect of the particles is to add a surface energy term to the Gibb s energy of formation of the crystalline nucleus. This change in the G ibbs free energy slightly modifies the effective fusion temperature, b ut significantly changes the nucleation frequency, Besides this surfac e interaction, the particles introduce an additional effect, the reduc tion of the volume fraction occupied by the crystallizing phase. The e ffect of the perturbing particles is characterized by two independent parameters, the volume fraction of particles and another parameter tha t depends on the particle size, the interfacial energies between the p articles and supercooled liquid, and the heat of fusion of the alloy.