Synthesis and Microstructural Characterization of Cu-C Composite Metal Powder by Mechanical Alloying
It was investigated whether mechanical alloying (MA) processing could be more effective to the formation of metallic composite powder in Cu-C system. Elemental powder mixtures of Cu-70vo1.%C were mechanically alloyed with an attritor in an argon atmosphere and microstructural evolution was examined by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. It has been found that even with the high volume fraction of immiscible graphite in Cu-C system, the refinement with a few ten nanometer size as well as the highly uniform distribution of copper phases have been achieved by the MA processing.