CORONADO, RANIELLA BIANCA Y.
NANOTECHNOLOGY
5CHED
JOURNAL
Mechanical Milling: a Top Down Approach for
the
Synthesis of Nanomaterials and
Nanocomposites by Thakur Prasad Yadav,
Ram Manohar Yadav, Dinesh Pratap Singh
Mechanical alloying and milling by C.
Suryanarayana
Mechanical Properties of Low Temperature
Synthesized Dense and Fine Grained
Cr2AlC Ceramics by Yu et. al
SEPT. 1, 2016
SUMMARY
High energy ball milling is one of the most
exploited top down methods of nanomaterial
synthesis. This is done by mechanical alloying
and post annealing of the elemental or
starting powders in an inert atmosphere.
High energy ball milling introduces plastic
deformation, cold-welding, and fracture
which results to the mechanical activation of
the starting materials. This in turn helps in
the reactivity/activity of the materials to be
used in the synthesis.
Among different methods of synthesizing
nanocrystalline materials, the use of
mechanical alloying has an advantage in
terms of the type of equipment needed. Bulk
quantities of nanomaterials can be produced
using mechanical alloying at room
temperature by using a variety of mills such
as a planetary ball mill. In fact, many
nanocomposites have already been
synthesized by mechanical alloying at
relatively low temperatures. This is due to
the introduction of defect density and
internal strains which in turn lowers the
reaction temperature of the starting
powders.
Yu et al. were able to synthesize fine-
crystalline Cr2AlC at relatively low
temperatures by mechanical alloying and hot
pressing at 30MPa. They were able to
produce fine powders at a temperature 300
lower than the conventional sintering
temperature of 1400C (by hot pressing
method). They attributed this improvement
to the enhanced reactivity of the elemental
powders (Cr, Al, C) due to their nano-
structure which was attained by mechanical
alloying. The introduction of high defect
density and large internal strains brought by
mechanical alloying accelerated the diffusion
CORONADO, RANIELLA BIANCA Y. NANOTECHNOLOGY
5CHED SEPT. 1, 2016

process and increased the contact area

between the reactant powders.
Salt melt synthesis (SMS) were first used for
producing oxide ceramics. It is now used in
the synthesis of varieties of nanomaterials,
especially those suffering from slow
crystallization kinetics. Salt functions as a
Salt melt synthesis of ceramics,
high temperature ionic solvent which offers
semiconductors and carbon
solvation power to covalent solids because of
nanostructures by Xiaofeng Liu, Nina Fechler,
its strong polarizing nature at high
Markus Antonietti
temperatures. With this, it lowers the
reaction temperature of ternary carbides
(such as Cr2AlC) by facilitating mass transport
and nucleation processes in a continuous
liquid phase.
Xiao et al. were able to produce nano-sized
Cr2AlC powders from the elemental powders
Synthesis of Nano Sized Cr2AlC Powders Cr, Al, and C. As a route of synthesis, molten
by Molten Salt Method salt was utilized by using KCl as their flux.
by Dan Xiao, Jianfeng Zhu, Fen Wang, and Yi They were able to synthesize fine Cr2AlC
Tang particles of size ~300 nm (as shown in SEM
micrographs) at 1250 C, compared to the
usual formation temperature of 1450C.