Calorimetric Studies on Enthalpy Relaxation in Maltitol Glass Transition Based on Phenomenological Models

To investigate the enthalpy relaxation behavior of maltitol glass system,differential scanning calorimetry（DSC） was used to obtain the specific heat capacity[C p（T）] near the glass transition temperature（T g） at different cooling rates ranged between 1 and 20 K/min.Three phenomenological models of enthalpy relaxation,ToolNarayanaswamy-Moynihan（TNM） model,Adam-Gibbs-Vogel（AGV） model and Gómez Ribelles（GR） model,were used to simulate the experimental data.The models＇ parameters were obtained via a curve-fitting method.The results indicate that TNM and AGV models gave the almost identical prediction powers and can reproduce the curves of experimental C p（T） very well.However,the prediction power of GR model evolved from configurational entropy approach is not so good as those of TNM and AGV models.In particular,the metastable limit state parameter（δ） introduced by Gómez Ribelles has insignificant effect on the enthalpy relaxation of the small molecular hydrogen-bonding glass system.

A group of ductile metallic glasses prepared by modifying local structure of icosahedral quasicrystals

Inspired by research into the association between icosahedral local orders and the plasticity of metallic glasses(MGs),beryllium(Be) is added to the icosahedral quasi-crystal forming alloy Zr40Ti40Ni20. In this way, bulk metallic glasses(BMGs) with favorable compressive plasticity are fabricated. Therein, the icosahedral quasi-crystalline phase is the main competing phase of amorphous phases and icosahedral local orders are the main local atomic motifs in amorphous phases.The alloys of(Zr40Ti40Ni20)76Be24and (Zr40Ti40Ni20)72Be28with their greater plastic strain capacity show similar characteristics to highly plastic amorphous systems: The serrated flow of compression curves always follows a near-exponential distribution. The primary and secondary shear bands intersect each other, bifurcate, and bend. Typical vein patterns are densely distributed on the fracture surfaces. The relaxation enthalpy of four MGs is linearly correlated with the plastic strain, that is, the greater the relaxation enthalpy, the larger the plastic strain.

FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED STUDIES OF POLY (ETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE) FILM IN THE GLASS TRANSITION REGION

Three specimens from a solution-cast poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film, one being liquid-N_2 quenched from 92℃(Q), one being slowly cooled from 92℃(SC) and one being quenched and sub-T_g annealed at 67℃(AN), have been studied by specimen difference spectra Q-SC and AN-Q and temperature difference spectra T-70 and T_2-T_1 for every 2℃ steps on heating to 90℃ at 2℃ /min. SC and AN showed more gauche conformers than Q. That means that the PET chain has more trans conformers at higher temperatures and some of these are frozen during quenching through T_g. A band at 1340 cm^(-1) has been found to be complex containing overlapping bands reflecting trans in crystalline regions and trans in amorphous regions. The temperature difference spectra on heating through T_g showed that the spectral changes in Q are gradual while a rather abrupt change occurs in AN at 80—82℃ for the bands at 1340, 1042 and 1020 cm^(-1). No new conformational structure or new vibrational mode is involved. A kind of locking mechanism is suggested which hinders the molecular vibrational changes in AN below T_g until a sudden release occurs at T_g. These locking sites can be nothing else than sites of tighter local packing of chain segments. Consequently it is believed that inter-chain van der Waals attraction energy plays a dominating role in the volume relaxation and sub-T_g annealing of quenched amorphous polymers.

Slowβrelaxation in La-based metallic glasses based on mechanical spectroscopy measurements

Dynamic mechanical relaxations of La-based metallic glasses were investigated by mechanical spectroscopy.In the framework of the mixing enthalpy of constituent atoms,it was found thatβrelaxation was less evident by the addition of Cu to replace Ni in the LaCuNiAl glassy alloy.By introducing Cu into the LaNiAl metallic glass,the mixing enthalpy was less negative,which led to weakerβrelaxation of the metallic glasses.Theαrelaxation of the La-based metallic glasses could be described by a Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts（KWW）function with a Kohlrausch exponentβKWW around 0.5.It should be noted that physical aging above the glass transition temperature Tginduced a decrease ofβrelaxation intensity in the La-based metallic glass.

Influence of thermal history on the crystallization behavior of high-Bs Fe-based amorphous alloys

A crucial step in creating cutting-edge soft magnetic alloys is the nanocrystallization of Fe-based amorphous alloys.However,it is unclear how the thermal history affects the nanocrystallization.In this work,high-precision nanocalorimetry and in-situ hightemperature transmission electron microscopy are used to systematically examine how the pre-annealing relaxation process affects the nanocrystallization of Fe-based amorphous alloys.We discover that the glass with more thermal energy storage will crystallize into superb nanocrystalline structures with exceptionally advanced soft magnetism.The soft magnetic properties of Fe-B nanocrystalline alloys can be improved by increasing the relaxation temperature.This finding provides solid and clear evidence for the influences of thermal history on crystallization behavior for Fe-based amorphous alloys,which is helpful for designing advanced soft magnetic nanocrystalline alloys.