| Abstract Scope |
Any liquid can be vitrified if it is cooled rapidly enough to avoid crystallization. The critical cooling rate (CCR) is the minimum rate at which a liquid must be cooled to prevent crystallization and form a glass. Understanding the controlling parameters (crystal nucleation and growth dynamics, viscosity, liquidus temperature, etc.) and determining or predicting the CCR is of paramount importance because the ability of any metallic alloy, organic, or inorganic substance to vitrify—known as its glass forming ability (GFA)—is quantified by the critical cooling rate. While good glass formers can be produced with very low cooling rates, below 0.1 K/s, typical metallic liquids only vitrify at cooling rates exceeding 10^6 K/s. In this talk, I will explore various methods to quantify GFA via CCR, encompassing differential scanning calorimetry techniques, theoretical calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, and attempts using machine learning algorithms. The results and conclusions will be fully discussed. |