X-ray Powder Diffraction Studies of Mechanically Milled Cobalt

The allotropic phase transformation of cobalt powder prepared by high-energy ball milling was investigated as a function of milling time. Measurement of crystallite size and micro-strain in the powder systems milled for different times were conducted by X-ray diffractometry. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks were analyzed using the Pearson VII profile function in conjunction with Rietveld method. X-ray diffraction line broadening revealed that allotropic transformation between face-centred-cubic phase (fcc) and hexagonal close-packed phase (hcp) in cobalt is grain size dependent and also on the accumulation of structure defects. The results showed that the phase formation of cobalt depends on the mill intensity that influences of both the grain size and the accumulation of structure defects. However, this theory alone is not adequate to explain the effects in this work. It was found that the total surface energy (Omega) theory satisfactorily explains the phase transformation behavior of cobalt. The smaller value of surface energy (Omega) of the fcc crystal than the hcp phase when size decreases may alter the qualitative aspects of the phase formation.