Surface melting of Sn nanoparticles embedded in an Al matrix studied by high-temperature in situ X-ray diffraction

In this paper, stannum (Sn) nanoparticles embedded in an aluminum (Al) matrix were prepared by the high energy ball milling method. The mean grain size of Sn nanoparticles decreases from 37 nm to 22 nm with increasing milling time from 5 h to 15 h. The melting behavior of Sn nanoparticles was studied by means of high-temperature in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD). The diffraction intensity of the Sn nanoparticles decreases progressively during the in situ heating process. The variation in the normalized integrated intensity of the Sn nanoparticles versus temperature is related to the ball milling time. The phenomenon was discussed in accordance with surface melting.