Structural and calorimetric studies of amorphous Cu 71Ni 11P 18 alloy produced by ball-milling

Abstract

Using the ball-milling method, amorphous Cu 71Ni 11P 18 alloy powders have been synthesized from a mixture of elementary copper, nickel and phosphorus powders. The reacted products were characterized by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry measurements as a function of the milling time. At the initial mechanical alloying stage, the crystal size of the elemental copper and nickel powders was reduced to an order of tens of nanometers. Since the interatomic diffusion is much enhanced among such small crystallites. Cu 3P intermetallic compound is first produced. When nickel atoms are incorporated into this compound and the strain cannot be stored due to the crystal size reduction, the Cu 3P-type intermetallic compound is transformed to the amorphous phase.