Mechanically driven phase transformation in single phase Al62.5Cu25Fe12.5 quasi-crystals: Effect of milling intensity Original Research Article

In this work the effect of mechanical milling on the structure, thermal stability and hardness of single phase Al62.5Cu25Fe12.5 icosahedral quasi-crystals has been investigated for different milling intensities. The results indicate that, irrespective of the milling intensity used, the quasi-crystals transform to a body-centered cubic (bcc) phase during milling. This transformation starts when the grain size of the QC phase is about 10 nm, which represents the critical grain size initiating the phase transformation. Upon heating the milled powder displays grain growth of the bcc phase at low temperatures, followed by transformation to the original icosahedral QC phase at higher temperatures. The phase transformations occurring during milling and subsequent annealing have a remarkable effect on the indentation hardness, which can be tuned within a wide range (7–10 GPa) as a function of the volume fractions of the different phases. This suggests that a composite material with optimized mechanical properties can be produced by appropriate thermo-mechanical treatments.