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Updated: May 22, 2025

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Fragility and thermal expansion control crystal melting and the glass transition
Alessio Zaccone1, Konrad Samwer2
1Department of Physics "A. Pontremoli," University of Milan, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milan, Italy.
Abstract:
Analytical relations for the glass transition temperature, Tg, and the crystal melting temperature, Tm, are developed on the basis of nonaffine lattice dynamics. The proposed relations explain the following: (i) the seemingly universal factor of ≈2/3 difference between the glass transition temperature and the melting temperature of the corresponding crystal, and (ii) the recent empirical discovery that both Tg and Tm are proportional to the liquid fragility m divided by the thermal expansion coefficient α of the solid.
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