Illustrating Materials Science Concepts Through Research On The Crystallization Kinetics Of An Amorphous Soft Magnetic Ribbon

This paper will present the use of research on the crystallization kinetics of Fe88Zr7B4Cu1, a soft magnetic metallic glass produced in ribbon form, to illustrate various fundamental concepts in materials science. This integration of research into teaching is part of the syllabus of the sophomore-level materials science course that is required of all mechanical engineering students at Union College. The course begins with an understanding of the crystalline and noncrystalline nature of solids, and Fe88Zr7B4Cu1 glassy ribbon is used as one example of a solid without longrange atomic order, i.e. that of a glass. Secondly, the glassy nature of this material is attributed to its method of fabrication, via melt spinning, which illustrates one example of the correlation of materials structure to materials processing. Third, students learn to use a binary phase diagram of iron and zirconium (Fe-Zr) to determine that a body-centered cubic (BCC) iron (Fe) phase will crystallize first out of this material, and they use transmission electron microscope images to calculate the volume fraction of solid phase that forms after a sample of this material has been heated for a given time. This quantification of the fraction of nanocrystallites that form out of the glassy matrix illustrates the model of crystallization kinetics and equations for nucleation and growth learned in lecture. Through the presentation of a specific research topic, principle materials science concepts of structure, property, processing, and performance are illustrated. In addition, several students respond to this example shown in the course by participating in oncampus and off-campus individual projects with the professor.