On the parameters to assess the glass forming ability of liquids

A new parameter has been proposed to assess the glass forming ability of liquids and its effectiveness is compared with the existing parameters. The new parameter (α = Tx/Tl), which incorporates both the factors of stability of the liquid (a low Tl) and the thermal stability of glass (a high Tx), has good correlation with the critical cooling rate for glass formation in a wide variety of glass forming alloys. This parameter can even be used for those glass forming alloys, which do not show a clear glass transition temperature. It has also been shown that the heating rate used during differential scanning calorimetry has negligible effect on the different glass forming parameters. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.