Direct Measurement of the Metastable Liquid Miscibility Gap in Fe-Co-Cu Ternary Alloy System

The metastable liquid-liquid phase separation in undercooled Fe-Co-Cu ternary alloy melts (Xcu=0.10-0.84;Xco:XFe=1:3, 1:1 and 3:1) is investigated by differential thermal analysis in combination with glass fluxing technique. In almost every case, the undercooling of the homogeneous alloy melt was sufficient to reach the boundary line of the submerged miscibility gap. The differential~thermal-analysis signals indicate that this separation into a (Fe, Co)-rich liquid phase L1 and a Cu-rich liquid L2 is exothermic and proceeds until the rapid solidification of the L1 phase occurs.