Preparation of Nanostructured Al-4.5wt%Mg Powder via Mechanical Alloying Process

Abstract

In this work, the preparation of nanostructured Al-4.5wt%Mg powder through the mechanical alloying (MA) process was evaluated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique was used to calculate the crystallite size and microstrain. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used not only to study the morphology of the powders but also to show the fact that the Mg powders were distributed during the MA process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was also used to demonstrate whether the produced powders are nanostructured or not. XRD results showed that microstrain and crystallite size of milled powder (after 10 h milling at the ball-to-powder weight ratio (BPR) of 20:1) were ≈-0.34% and ≈20nm respectively. XRD and TEM results showed that Al12Mg17has been formed during MA process. This means that during this process, mutual diffusion of Al and Mg has occurred.