Synthesis of Fe based ODS alloys by a very high speed planetary milling process

In the present work, Fe based ODS alloy (84Fe–14Cr–2Y2O3) was fabricated using a very high speed planetary milling process and their microstructures were investigated. For this purpose, initial coarse Fe and Cr metal powders with an average particle diameter of 40 μm and Y2O3 oxide powder with an average particle diameter of 50 μm were mechanically milled using a planetary ball mill machine specially designed to carry out milling experiments at elevated vial rpm up to 2640 rpm. The phase and crystal structures of the ODS powders were examined by XRD, and their cross-sections were characterized using SEM. The detailed microstructures were also further studied by FE-TEM. Based upon the XRD and SEM results of the MA powders, it was found that the initial coarse Y2O3 particles readily became much finer and then thoroughly homogenized with the metal powder element in a very short milling time of 40 min. The TEM results for the consolidated alloys showed that many precipitates of 10–20 nm were found in the matrix, and they were proved to be YCrO3 nano-phase.