Decomposition and Crystallization Induced by High-Energy Ball-Milling

Phase transformation induced by ball-milling was studied in this work. It was found that amorphous Fe90Zr10 ribbons undergo crystallization into BCC α-Fe(Zr) under milling in an AGO-2 mill. The decomposition degree of the amorphous phase increased with increasing milling time and intensity. Analyses of samples milled at different speeds suggested that the observed crystallization is a deformation-induced process rather than a thermally induced one. In addition, the decomposition behavior of a FeSn intermetallic under ball-milling was carefully studied. Upon milling a large amount of the FeSn intermetallic decomposed into Fe5Sn3 and FeSn2, where the average grain size of the product phases stayed nearly constant with milling-time. It is suggested that the mechanically driven decomposition of FeSn results from local melting of powder particles due to high temperature pulses during ball collisions.