Preparation of Al2O3–TiB2 nanocomposite powder by mechanochemical reaction between Al, B2O3 and Ti

Mechanochemical processing is a novel technique for the synthesis of nano-sized materials. This research is based on the production of Al2O3–TiB2 nanocomposite powder using mechanochemical processing. For this purpose, a mixture of aluminum, titanium and boron oxide powders was subjected to high energy ball milling. The structural evaluation of powder particles after different milling times was conducted by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that during ball milling the Al/B2O3/Ti reacted with a combustion mode producing Al2O3–TiB2 nanocomposite. In the final stage of milling, the crystallite sizes of Al2O3 and TiB2 were estimated to be less than 50 nm.