Contribution of mechanical activation and annealing in the formation of nanopowders of Al(Cu)/TiC-Al2O3 hybrid nanocomposite

A feasible approach to fabricate an Al(Cu)-based hybrid nanocomposite reinforced with TiC and Al 2 O 3 based on mechanical activation and post heat treatment was proposed. Structural and phase evolution during mechanical alloying were studied by employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), filed emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) techniques. Mechanical alloying method was used in order to formation of Al(Cu), TiO 2 /Al 3 Ti, Al 4 C 3 powder. It was found that a powder mixture of Al(Cu), TiO 2 /Al 3 Ti, Al 4 C 3 is formed after 30 h of milling. The XRD analysis showed that Al(Cu)/TiC-Al 2 O 3 is synthesized after heat treating of powder mixture at 1000 °C for 1 h via reaction between Al 3 Ti, Al 4 C 3 and TiO 2 . DTA analysis showed that Al(Cu)/TiC-Al 2 O 3 cannot be synthesized without mechanical activation and only based on heat treating. It was shown that heat treating of the as-milled powder mixture for 50 h at 500 °C doesn’t lead to formation of Al(Cu)/ TiC-Al 2 O 3 composite and a minimum temperature of about 1000 °C is needed for synthesis of Al(Cu)/ TiC-Al 2 O 3 hybrid composite.