Stiehler, Martin E.Panagiotopoulos, Nikolaos T.Keeble, Dean S.Ivanov, Yurii P.Menelaou, MelitaJolly, Mark R.Greer, A.LindsayGeorgarakis, Konstantinos2022-04-282022-04-282022-04-13Stiehler ME, Panagiotopoulos NT, Keeble DS, et al., (2022) The effect of Ni or Co additions on the structure of Zr60Cu30Al10 bulk metallic glass revealed by high-energy synchrotron radiation, Materials Today Communications, Volume 31, June 2022, Article number 1035312352-4928https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.103531https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/17825The effect of substituting Cu by elemental additions of Ni or Co on the atomic structure of the Zr60Cu30Al10 ternary bulk metallic glass (BMG) is studied using high-energy synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction. Analyses of the structural features in reciprocal and real space using the structure factors S(Q) and pair-distribution functions (PDF) point to an increase in the structural disorder for the Ni- or Co-bearing quaternary alloys. This is consistent with the “confusion principle” since upon alloying the initially nearly identical atomic sizes of Cu, Ni and Co diversify due to local electronic interactions. In real space, the disordering is manifested by a reduced deviation from the average particle density visible in the nearest-neighbour (NN) atomic shell structure over the complete short- and medium-range order region. Despite their similar atomic size, enthalpies of mixing with the main alloy elements and apparent disordering of the structure, the additions of Ni or Co have different effects on thermal stability of the ternary “mother” alloy.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Metallic glassAtomic structurePair distribution functionGlass forming abilityX-ray diffractionSynchrotron radiationDisorderConfusion principleAnti-shellEmergenceTEMDSCArticle