Undercooling studies on Nb-Pt and Nb-Si alloys using the 105 meter drop tube

Niobium-platinum samples of compositions ranging from 16 to 32 at. % have been undercooled to as much as 540 K in the low gravity, containerless environment of the 105 meter drop tube located at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. Undercooling was terminated in the Nb-Pt samples by the nucleation and growth of the Nb₃Pt phase. In the 16–18 at. % Pt samples, this resulted in samples which are completely Nb₃Pt, in contrast to both the equilibrium phase diagram and the non-undercooled samples which formed with Nb dendrites and interdendritic Nb₃Pt. Undercoolings for the Nb-Si samples were up to 670 K, which corresponds to 27% of the liquidus temperature or 80% of the estimated hypercooling limit. In the Nb-Si system, a coupled zone was identified as well as a metastable extension of the solubility limit of Si in Nb due to deep undercooling.