Metallic glasses are ideal candidates for functional applications. Mg-Zn-Ca amorphous alloy powders are found to exhibit significant enhancement in degrading azo dyes. In this work, an attempt has been made to study the dye degradation behavior of partially amorphous powders of one of the best corrosion resistant composition. For the first time, partially amorphous Mg-Zn-Ca alloy powders are synthesized through a single step ball milling (BM) process and their dye degradation capacity has been systematically evaluated. The results clearly demonstrate that Mg-Zn-Ca powders synthesized through single step ball milling process exhibit superior reaction efficiency in degrading azo dyes. The work has implications in arriving at an easy and efficient method for functional applications of partially amorphous Mg-Zn-Ca alloy powders. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.