Mechanomaking of Fe/Al2O3 and FeCr/Al2O3 nanocomposites powders fabrication

Nanocomposite powders (Fe or Fe-Cr alloy)/α-Al2O3 (75 and 85 vol.%) were obtained by room-temperature high-energy milling powder mixtures of hematite (and chromium oxide) with aluminum and alumina in a high-capacity mill for 8-10 h. The composition of iron and iron alloys was followed by Mössbauer spectroscopy, while the appearance of other phases was revealed by X-ray diffraction. The powder particles produced are assemblies of grains (10–20 nm in size) with a wide size distribution (from well below 1 μm up to several hundreds) and low porosity (fully dense particles). Both the metallic and ceramic phases have crystallite sizes below 15 nm for all the compositions investigated. Nano-nano type ceramic nanocomposites were, therefore, obtained.