The effect of milling time on the structure properties and morphology of aluminium powder from construction industry waste milled using high energy milling

Abstract

The effect of milling time on the structure and morphology of aluminum frame powder has been investigated. In this study, aluminum was made in aluminum powder, as a raw material for making bipolar plates in the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology. Aluminum powder is synthesized using high-energy milling (HEM) with variations in milling time for 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 minutes. Aluminum powder that has been milled, is characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). From the results of XRD characterization, an aluminum frame that is milled for 10-20 minutes has an aluminum phosphide phase. Whereas for an aluminum frame that is milled for 30, 40 and 50 minutes has an aluminum phase Rudashevskyite. From the results of XRD also obtained, as aluminum frame has a cubic crystal structure with lattice parameters α = β = γ = 900, and aluminum powder rang each has a crystal size of 258.31, 865, 218.2, 560, and 255.9 Ǻ for 10 milling times, 20, 30, 40, and 50 minutes, so it can be concluded that the size of the aluminum frame powder crystal fluctuates. While from the results of SEM, aluminum nanoparticle powder obtained from the nanosheet structure, where the gray one is aluminum particles and the black one shows the presence of other elements. The composition of order 94% aluminum nanoparticles is pure aluminum and 6% other elements, this is reinforced from the SEM image which looks more dominant gray.