AMORPHIZATION OF ALUMINUM BASE MULTICOMPONENT SYSTEMS BY BALL-MILLING

Recently, Al-based amorphous alloys with an homogenous dispersion of fee-Al nanograins synthesized by rapid solidification have gained considerable interest. They exhibit a very high specific strength, but their lack of thermal stability at temperatures around 500 K is one of the major limitation of their industrial applications. We have used a ball milling process to attempt to overcome this problem, by producing an homogeneous dispersion of nanoscale oxide particles within Al-enriched amorphous matrices. A series of experimental work have been carried out to understand the basic mechanism of Al-enriched powder mixtures-ball interaction at several milling conditions. In this review, we summarize the experimental and fundamental data on the Al-based multicomponent systems with the aim of covering various aspects of the formation, structure and morphology of metastable crystalline phases, and the effect of alloying elements on the glass-forming ability and thermal stability of amorphous alloys.