In this work, the effect of boron content on the high-temperature wetting behavior in the Si-B alloy/h-BN systems was experimentally examined. For this reason, hypoeutectic, eutectic and hypereutectic Si-B alloys (Si-1B, Si-3.2B and Si-5.7B wt.%, respectively) were produced by electric arc melting method and then subjected to sessile drop/contact heating experiments with polycrystalline h-BN substrates, at temperatures up to 1750 °C. Similar to pure Si/h-BN system, wetting kinetics curves calculated on a basis of in situ recorded drop/substrate images point toward non-wetting behavior of all selected Si-B alloy/h-BN couples. The highest contact angle values of ~ 150° were obtained for hypoeutectic and eutectic Si-B alloys in the whole examined temperature range.

The effect of yttrium additions on the glass formation of the Zr₅₀Cu₄₀Al₁₀ alloy with high oxygen content was investigated. Unlike other reports showing the positive effect of alloying Zr-based alloys with a few percent of rare earth elements, we examined the Y-to-oxygen ratios. As calculated, a stoichiometric amount of yttrium (2808 at ppm) is required to bind all the oxygen (4212 at ppm) to form the Y₂O₃. Additionally, the influence of half (1404 at ppm) and double stoichiometric (5616 at ppm) levels of yttrium, with respect to the measured oxygen content to be bound was evaluated. The Y-doped alloys were synthesized by arc melting, followed by suction casting into copper molds with conical and rod cavities. The critical diameter of the undoped alloy was below 3 mm, while stoichiometric and double stoichiometric yttrium concentrations allowed to obtain 5 and 7 mm diameter glassy samples, respectively. Microstructure observations confirmed the scavenging effect of yttrium, leading to the formation of a cubic ( $$ Ia\bar{3} $$ I a 3 ¯ space group) yttrium sesquioxide. The glass forming ability of the alloys was additionally determined based on differential thermal analysis, allowing to propose the best indicator for the studied Zr-Cu-Al alloys.