A study on mechanochemical behavior of B2O3–Al system to produce alumina-based nanocomposite

One possible route for producing the fine and homogenous distribution of hard particles in composite microstructure is the mechanochemical processing in which high-energy ball milling promotes the reaction in a mixture of reactive powders. In this study mechanochemical reaction of B2O3 and Al powder during ball milling was studied. The phase transformation and microstructure of powder particles during ball milling were investigated by X-ray diffractometry and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that during ball milling the B2O3–Al reacted with a combustion mode producing Al2O3–AlB12 nanocomposite. The crystallite size of Al2O3 and AlB12 was 40 and 25 nm, respectively. This structure appeared to be stable upon annealing.