The liquid droplets produced by atomization processes are believed to undergo substantial supercooling during solidification, because the catalytic heterogeneities, for statistical reasons, tend to be isolated in the larger droplets. This supercooling can lead to the nucleation of metastable phases. As part of a study on the effect of liquid supercooling on nonequilibrium solidification, three binary Fe-Ni alloys have been produced by conventional argon atomization (Fe-20Ni, Fe-30Ni, and Fe-40Ni). The primary variables in these experiments are: i) the alloy composition; and ii) the powder particle diameter (inversely proportional to supercooling). Of particular interest in this system is the competitive nucleation kinetics between the stable fee and metastable bec phases. Bcc is expected to nucleate preferentially with decreasing %Ni and decreasing particle diameter.
Diffusive and martensitic nucleation kinetics in solid-solid transitions of colloidal crystals
