Synthesis of binary and ternary intermetallic powders via a novel reaction ball milling technique

The synthesis of ultrafine elevated-temperature intermetallic powders was carried out using a self-developed novel solid–liquid reaction milling technique. Fe–X (X = Sn, Zn and Sb), Al–X (X = Ti, Fe and Cu), Ni–X (X = Al, Sn, Zn and Sb) and Al–Fe–X (X = Si and Cu) systems were chosen as the samples. The milling balls are made of the metals with higher melting point for each alloy system. As opposed to the conventional mechanical milling technique, the direct formation of the nanometer-sized elevated-temperature intermetallic powders at relatively low temperatures and the nearly pure ternary intermetallic phases were realized. The phase formation regularities during milling processing were investigated and the reaction mechanism was discussed.