Mechanical Milling: a Top Down Approach for the Synthesis of Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites

Abstract

Synthesis of nanomaterials by a simple, low cost and in high yield has been a great challenge since the very early development of nanoscience. Various bottom and top down approaches have been developed so far, for the commercial production of nanomaterials. Among all top down approaches, high energy ball milling, has been widely exploited for the synthesis of various nanomaterials, nanograins, nanoalloy, nanocomposites and nano -quasicrystalline materials. Mechanical alloying techniques have been utilized to produce amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys as well as metal/non-metal nanocomposite materials by milling and post annealing, of elemental or compound powders in an inert atmosphere. Mechanical alloying is a non-equilibrium processing technique in which different elemental powders are milled in an inert atmosphere to create one mixed powder with the same composition as the constituents. In high-energy ball milling, plastic deformation, cold-welding and fracture are predominant factors, in which the deformation leads to a change in particle shape, cold-welding leads to an increase in particle size and fracture leads to decrease in particle size resulting in the formation of fine dispersed alloying particles in the grain-refined soft matrix. By utilizing mechanical milling various kind of aluminium/ nickel/ magnesium/ copper based nanoalloys, wear resistant spray coatings, oxide and carbide strengthened aluminium alloys, and many other nanocomposites have been synthesized in very high yield. The mechanical milling has been utilized for the synthesis of nanomaterials either by milling and post annealing or by mechanical activation and then applying some other process on these activated materials. This review is a systematic view of the basic concept of mechanical milling, historical view and applications of mechanical milling in the synthesis of various nanomaterials, nanosomposites, nnaocarbons and nano quasicrystalline materials.

Lightweight hydrides nanocomposites for hydrogen storage: Challenges, progress and prospects

“…In general, effective nanoscaling strategies can be achieved using high energy ball milling (HEBM) [204,205] and NC [206][207][208] techniques. In HEBM technique, the collision and fracture effects can result in the reduction of particle size.…”

A Review: Carbon Additives in LiMnPO4- and LiCoO2-Based Cathode Composites for Lithium Ion Batteries

“…Ball milling or mechanical milling has several aims: reducing the particle size [98], mixing of powders [99][100][101][102][103][104] and synthesizing nanoparticles [105][106][107]. There are also several types of mechanical mills such as tumbler, vibration, planetary and attrition mills [108,109]. Depending on a type of ball milling, the energy and force (either shear or shock) vary and the degree of grinding or mixing varies as well [35,108,110,111].…”

“…such as tumbler, vibration, planetary and attrition mills [108,109]. Depending on a type of ball milling, the energy and force (either shear or shock) vary and the degree of grinding or mixing varies as well [35,108,110,111]. The milling of nanomaterials rather forms agglomerations instead of breaking single particles, reducing the surface area of nanoparticles [39].…”

Synthesis and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline BaFe12O19

“…Temperature, time and atmosphere are the major parameters for sintering whereas mechanical milling has numerous parameters that affect the structural characteristics of the end product. Size and size distribution of the balls, ball/sample mass ratio, volume of the vial, filling ratio of the vial, turning speed of the vial, duration of milling and even the temperature of the milling could affect particle / crystallite sizes of the end product [28,29]. Therefore, It is generally considered to be difficult to optimize the milling parameters.…”