Ternary Eutectic Growth in a Highly Undercooled Liquid Alloy

The crystal nucleation and growth mechanism during the formation of Ag42.4 Cu21.6 Sb36 ternary eutectic are investigated under substantial undercoo]ing conditions. The x-ray diffraction analysis shows that the solidified eutectic phases are not invo]ved (Ag) within a wide undercooling range of 6-114 K. This indicates that under high undercooling condition, the phase constitution of Ag-Cu-Sb eutectic is different from that in the equilibrium phase diagram. With the increase of undercoo]ing, the crystalline morpho]ogy of Ag42.4 Cu21.6 Sb36 alloy transforms from the mixed structure of primary θ(Cu2Sb), two pseudobinary eutectics and (ε θ Sb) ternary eutectic into a unique (ε θ Sb) ternary eutectic. The calculated results indicate that θ(Cu2Sb) is the leading nucleating phase among the three eutectic phases. In addition, the growth morpho]ogy of primary ε(Ag3Sb) compound in Ag60Cu6Sb34 alloy exhibits the characteristics of solid solution and its orthorhombic dendrite grows along the (111) directions.