Synthesis of Nono-Crystalline Aluminum Carbide Using Thermal Treatment of Mechanically Activated Al and Graphite Mixture

In this work, Nono-crystalline aluminum carbide particles were synthesized using both mechanical and thermal treatments. Frist, Al and graphite powders had been milled in a planetary ball mill. Then, milled mixtures have been annealed isothermally after the mechanical activation. The effects of two processes on the synthesized products were separately studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) methods. Further, the grain size, lattice strain and dislocation density values were calculated according to XRD data. The results showed that mechanical alloying process can create an ultra-fine microstructure. The grain size was mostly reduced after 40 h milling as well as the heat treatment at 550 °c and 2 h. in fact, the high rate of plastic deformation of aluminum particle during milling process lead to rising the internal energy of particles, and finally, nanocrystals of Al4C3 formed with the size of 14 nm. However, thermal analysis indicated that the mechanical activation of aluminum and the presence of carbon can play key roles in synthesis of aluminum carbide. Key words: Mechanical alloying, annealing, Al and graphite powders, Solid state reaction, Nono-crystalline aluminum carbide.