Abstract

Mechanical alloying (MA) by high energy ball mill of Pure chromium Powders was carried out under the nitrogen gas atmosphere. Cr-N amorphous alloy powders have been produced through the solid-gas reaction subjected to MA. The atomic structure during amorphization process was observed by X-ray and neutron diffractions. An advantage of the neutron diffraction technique allows us to observe the local atomic structure surrounding a nitrogen atom. The coordination number of metal atoms around a N atom turns out to be 5.5 atoms. This implies that a nitrogen atom is located at both of centers of the tetrahedron and octahedron formed by metal atoms to stabilize an amorphous Cr-N structure. Also, we have revealed that a Cr-N amorphous alloy may produced from a mixture of pure Cr and Cr nitrides powders by solid-solid reaction during mechanical alloying.

• Keywords: Mechanical alloying;Amorphization process;Solid-gas reaction;Local atomic structure;