ACCURACY IN THE EXPERIMENTAL CALORIMETRIC STUDY OF THE CRYSTALLIZATION KINETICS AND PREDICTIVE TRANSFORMATION DIAGRAMS - APPLICATION TO A GA-TE AMORPHOUS ALLOY

The uncertainties inherent to experimental differential scanning calor imetric data are evaluated. A new procedure is developed to perform th e kinetic analysis of continuous heating calorimetric data when the he at capacity of the sample changes during the crystallization. The accu racy of isothermal calorimetric data is analyzed in terms of the peak- to-peak noise of the calorimetric signal and base line drift typical o f differential scanning calorimetry equipment. Their influence in the evaluation of the kinetic parameter is discussed. An empirical constru ction of the time-temperature and temperature-heating rate transformat ion diagrams, grounded on the kinetic parameters, is presented. The me thod is applied to the kinetic study of the primary crystallization of Te in an amorphous alloy of nominal composition Ga20T80, obtained by rapid solidification.