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Updated: May 7, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Interplay between crystallization and glass transition in binary Lennard-Jones mixtures
Atreyee Banerjee1, Suman Chakrabarty, Sarika Maitra Bhattacharyya
1Polymer Science and Engineering Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 411008, India.
Binary mixtures that form specific crystal structures, particularly body-centered cubic (bcc) and face-centered cubic (fcc) phases, exhibit unique glass-forming properties. Frustration between local and global structures enhances stability against crystallization.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Chemical Physics
- Crystallography
Background:
- Understanding crystallization and glass transition is crucial for designing new materials.
- Binary mixtures offer a tunable platform to study phase behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between crystal structure and glass formation in binary mixtures.
- To explore how inter-species interactions and composition influence crystallization and glass transition.
Main Methods:
- Computational modeling of binary mixtures.
- Analysis of crystal structures (bcc, fcc, NaCl-type) and phase diagrams.
- Investigation of locally preferred structures (LPS) and global structures.
Main Results:
- Systems forming bcc crystals at equimolar composition and mixed bcc+fcc phases at higher concentrations resist crystallization.
- Systems forming NaCl-type fcc crystals readily crystallize into mixed NaCl+fcc phases.
- Frustration between LPS and mixed bcc+fcc crystals stabilizes the 'bcc zone' and promotes glass formation.
Conclusions:
- The interplay between locally preferred structures and global crystal structures dictates crystallization behavior.
- Frustration, particularly in mixed crystal systems involving a single species, is a key factor for good glass formers.
- Phase diagram topology, specifically V-shaped diagrams, influences the stability of crystal phases.
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