Pressure effect on crystallization of mechanically alloyed amorphous Al85Fe15 alloy

The pressure effect on the crystallization of amorphous Al85Fe15 alloy prepared by means of ball-milling was investigated in a pressure range up to 1.4 GPa. It was found that the applied pressure enhances the nanoscale fcc Al precipitation from amorphous matrix which does not occur at ambient pressure. The precipitation temperature of nanoscale fcc Al from amorphous matrix decreases from about 380 to 200°C when the applied pressure increases from 0.4 to 1.0 GPa. The high-pressure annealing of mechanically alloyed Al-based amorphous powders provides an effective approach to optimize the synthesis procedure for nanocrystalline/amorphous composite materials.