Amorphization of transition metal-Si alloy powders by mechanical alloying

The systematic investigation of the amorphization of transition metal-Si (TM-Si) alloy powders by mechanical alloying shows that in Ti-Si, Zr-Si, Nb-Si and TaSi systems, the amorphous metallic silicide powders can be synthesized. A high energy ball mill was used for mechanically alloying the pure element powder mixtures. The free energy amorphous state of TM3Si powders does not exceed -31.95 kJ per mole and the ratio of the silicon to transition metal atomic radius is less than 0.985.