The thermal expansion and volume change in a Hf70Pd20Ni10 glassy alloy were studied by X-ray diffractometry using in situ heating in a high energy monochromatic Synchrotron beam radiation. Devitrification behavior of the Hf70Pd20Ni10 glassy alloy was investigated by using conventional X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy, differential scanning and isothermal calorimetries. The formation of nanoscale cF96 Ti2Ni-type particles embedded in the residual glassy matrix was observed upon annealing. The kinetics of devitrification and the obtained Avrami exponent value of 2.6 indicate that the primary cF96 precipitates are formed by the steady state nucleation and diffusion-controlled growth of nuclei. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.