ABSTRACT
Mechanochemical processing (MCP) is the term applied to the powder process in which chemical reactions and phase transformations take place due to application of mechanical energy. The technique ofMCP had a long history with the first publication dating back to 1892 [1]. It was shown that the order of decomposition and sublimation of mercury and silver halides was different upon heating and trituration in a mortar. This study clearly established that chemical changes could be brought about not only by heating but also by mechanical action. However, the use of mechanically activated processes dates back to the early history of mankind, when fires were initiated by rubbing of flints one against the other. Ostwald coined the term ‘‘mechanochemical’’ in 1911 [2]. A simple way of differentiating between mechanically activated processes and MCP methods is that no chemical reactions or phase transformations take place during mechanical activation, whereas these do occur in MCP. However, some investigators [3] use the term MCP to include mechanical alloying (MA), mechanical milling (MM), and reaction milling (RM), the last one involving chemical reactions induced by mechanical activation. In this chapter we will use the termMCP to denote the process of mechanical activation to achieve chemical reactions. While the scientific basis underlying MCP was investigated from the very beginning, applications for the mechanochemical products were slow to come about mostly because of the limitations on the productivity of MCP reactors, the purity of the products, and the economics of the process. The general phenomenon of MCP has been a popular research topic in Germany [4,5], former USSR and Eastern Europe [6]. These researchers concentrated their efforts on both the fundamental principles ofMCP and the potential applications for materials produced by MCP [7-13].
