On the parameters to assess the glass forming ability of liquids

Abstract

A new parameter has been proposed to assess the glass forming ability of liquids and its effectiveness is compared with the existing parameters. The new parameter (α = T_x/T_l), which incorporates both the factors of stability of the liquid (a low T_l) and the thermal stability of glass (a high T_x), has good correlation with the critical cooling rate for glass formation in a wide variety of glass forming alloys. This parameter can even be used for those glass forming alloys, which do not show a clear glass transition temperature. It has also been shown that the heating rate used during differential scanning calorimetry has negligible effect on the different glass forming parameters.