Nanostructured materials by mechanical alloying: new results on property enhancement

Mechanical attrition—the mechanical alloying or milling of powders—is a very versatile and potent method of obtaining nanocrystalline or ultrafine grain structures with enhanced properties. This article presents three examples of enhanced properties obtained by materials in which the grain size has been reduced to the nanoscale or ultrafine scale by ball milling and consolidation of powders. Very high strength/hardness—the highest hardness yet reported for crystalline Mg alloys—for a ball milled Mg₉₇Y₂Zn₁ alloy is due in part to the nanocrystalline grain structure, along with nanoscale precipitates. A ternary Cu-base alloy with a low stacking fault energy was found to have both high strength and good ductility in a nanocrystalline material synthesized by the in situ ball milling consolidation method. This is another example that shows nanocrystalline materials need not be brittle. It is shown that bulk thermoelectric materials with superior properties can be produced by the ball milling and consolidation of powders to provide an ultrafine grain structure.