Synthesis and Characterization of In Situ Al-Al₁₃Fe₄-Al₂O₃-TiB₂ Nanocomposite Powder by Mechanical Alloying and Subsequent Heat Treatment

Abstract

Al-Al₁₃Fe₄-Al₂O₃-TiB₂ nanocomposite powder was fabricated by mechanical alloying (MA) and subsequent heat treatment of aluminum, ferrotitanium and boron oxide as a raw material. The obtained nanocomposite powder was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Also; microhardness values of powder particles after different milling times were measured. Microhardness of this nanocomposite was found to be about 161 HV. The results of XRD showed that the nanocrystalline supersaturated solid solutions of aluminum (α-Al) that formed within 30 h of MA with a mean crystallite size of 12 nm. The above experimental results showed that the heat-treated 30 h of MA powders leads to the in situ formation of nanocrystalline TiB₂ in an Al matrix with a mean crystallite size of 45 nm. It was also found that after the heat treatment, moreover, the TiB₂ phase, the other compounds such as Al₂O₃ and Al₁₃Fe₄ have been formed.

Keywords:

• Al-TiB₂
• characterization
• mechanical alloying
• nano- composite
• synthesis