The mechanical treatment of solids is one of the most common and widely used operations. The volume of solids subjected to chemical treatment is very large too. Therefore, combining these two ways into one seems to be a logical solution. This method is called the mechanochemical processing of materials. Processing materials in this way has many advantages. On the one hand, this processing is economically as well as technologically feasible. Even the materials that not react together in conventional way can be prepare in this way. The mechanochemistry/mechanochemical synthesis utilizes the mechanical energy to activate chemical reactions and structural changes. The aluminothermic reduction reactions induced by the high – energy ball milling are gaining importance because of the potential applications like the synthesis of microcrystalline and nanocrystalline in – situ metal matrix composites. The mechanical activation of the chemical reactions by high energy ball milling often changes the reaction mechanism and produces metastable materials. Changes of reaction mechanisms during mechanical alloying on four different systems were studied. The system was based on this composition: Al - B2O3 - X (X = C, Ti, Nb, Cr). The possibility of another in – situ reactions during spark plasma sintering process (SPS) was also investigated. All systems were mechanically alloyed under the same conditions. After alloying, on each system scanning electron microscopy was performed and qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed using X-ray diffraction. The indentation hardness and the indentation modulus of elasticity were evaluated using nanoindentation. All analyzes were performed after mechanical alloying as well as SPS and the results were compared to each other. Based on the results, a change of reaction mechanisms was proposed for all systems. It has been found that metal matrix composites are formed and, when chromium is used, hybrid composite material reinforced with intermetallic phase and aluminum borate has been developed.

名古屋大学年代測定総合研究センターシンポジウム報告