Determination of activation energy for crystallizations in Ni–Cu–P amorphous alloys

Abstract

The effect of plastic deformation on the crystallization kinetics of the ternary Ni–Cu–P amorphous alloy coatings prepared by electroless plating was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. It was shown that the effective crystallization activation energy of the amorphous coatings is pronouncedly affected by the plastic deformation, indicating a decreasing tendency with deformation, the effective activation energy decreases from 199.02 to 163.71 kJ mol⁻¹ as the plastic deformation from 0% to 40%. And, accordingly, this leads to the decrease of crystallization temperature. Analyses were presented to discuss the possible mechanism for the notable effects of plastic deformation on the crystallization kinetics of the amorphous coatings.

Keywords:

• alloy
• differential scanning calorimetry
• crystallization temperature
• plastic deformation
• effective activation energy

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province in China for financial support under grant No. 503291.