ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s, mechanical attrition (MA) of powder particles as a method for materials synthesis has been developed as an industrial process to successfully produce new alloys and phase mixtures. For example, this powder metallurgical process allows the preparation of alloys and composites which can not be synthesized via conventional casting routes, e.g. uniform dispersions of ceramic particles in a metallic matrix and alloys of metals with quite different melting points with the goal of improved strength and corrosion resistance [1]. Furthermore, mechanical attrition has gained a lot of attention as a nonequilibrium process resulting in solid-state alloying beyond the equilibrium solubility limit and the formation of amorphous or nanostructured materials for a broad range of alloys, intermetallics, ceramics, and composites [2, 3] . In the case of mechanical attrition of a binary powder mixture, amorphous phase formation occurs by intermixing of the atomic species on an atomic scale, thus driving the crystalline solid solution outside of its stability range against 'melting' resulting in solid-state amorphization [4]. This process is considered to be a result of both mechanical alloying [5] and the incorporation of lattice defects into the crystal lattice [ 6].
