Formation of Metastable Carbides and Amorphous Phase of Fe-C System by Mechanical Alloying

Abstract

Mechanical alloying (MA) and mechanical grinding (MG) for Fe-C and Fe-C-Si systems have been performed by the use of a conventional ball-mill. Elemental powders and cast iron powders have been used for MA and MG, respectively. Phases formed on the ball-milling process has been studied by X-ray diffractometry, 57Fe Mbssbauer spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry.
Results suggest that the partial amorphization of Fe-C system ball-milled for 200 hours has been occurred, while the single amorphous phase has been formed for Fe-C-Si system. The addition of silicon suppresses the formation of iron-carbides to promote the amorphization.