Formation of nanocrystalline Cu70Ti20Ni10 powders by mechanical alloying

The formation and thermal stability of nanocrystalline Cu70Ti20Ni10 powders by mechanical alloying has been studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). After milling, the material has a disordered fcc structure, with nanocrystalline grain sizes around 4.7 nm determined from the fcc (111) diffraction peak. The DSC signal monotonically decreases with isothermal transformation owing to grain growth. The crystal grains do not grow by heating until the intermetallic TiCu3 and NiTi phases nucleate at 450 °C.