Cooling Characteristic and Microstructure of Ni-Si-B-Ag Alloy

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of obtaining an amorphous/crystalline composite starting from Ni-Si- B-based powder grade 1559-40 and silver powder. The alloy was produced using arc melting of 95% wt. Ni-Si-B-based powder (1559-40) and 5% wt. Ag powder. Ingot was re-melted on a copper plate and observed while cooling using a mid-wave infra-red camera. The alloy was then melt-spun in a helium atmosphere. The microstructure of the ingot as well as the melt-spun ribbon was studied using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry. Phase identification was performed by means of X-ray diffraction. The observations confirmed an amorphous/crystalline microstructure of the ribbon where the predominant constituent of the microstructure was an amorphous phase enriched with Ni, Si, and B, while the minor constituent was an Ag-rich crystalline phase distributed in a film along the melt-spinning direction.