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

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 TiB2 phase the other compound such as Al2O3 and Al13Fe4 have been formed.