Fe 3 Al/TiC nanocomposite produced by mechanical alloying

Abstract

The aims of this work were to produce nanocrystalline powder by mechanical alloying of FeTi₂–Al–C powder mixture in a high energy ball mill and to study the phase transformation that took place during 20 h milling time. The microstructure and the phase transformations in the powder during milling were examined as a function of milling time and heat treatment. The phases of the product were evaluated by X-ray diffraction technique. The microstructural evolution during mechanical alloying was analysed using SEM. The results obtained showed that high energy ball milling, as performed in this work, led to the formation of a bcc phase identified as Fe(Al) solid solution and TiC_x after 2 h milling and nanocrytalline AlFe₃ and TiC_x after 5 h milling. The increase in the milling time resulted in the formation of AlFe₃C_x. By heat treatment of the body after 20 h milling at 1000°C, AlFe3C_x disappeared, showing that this phase is unstable.