Processing of aluminum flake powder via high energy ball milling under different conditions reaching to aluminum nanoparticles

The wet ball milling process has been employed to produce aluminum nanoparticles via processing of aluminum flake powder with average particle size about ۲۰ μm at which different three solvents were used as milling solvents under ambient conditions without injection of inert gas. Those solvents were kerosene, ۱,۴ dioxane and ۲-ethyl-hexanol. The milling process was achieved at different milling speeds, such were ۳۰۰, ۴۰۰, and ۵۰۰ rpm. The different characteristics of the fabricated aluminum powder were investigated via XRD, EDX, SEM and TEM investigations. The different three solvents successfully contributed to reduce the particle size of aluminum flake powder down to ~ ۸۶۰, ۲۸۵ and ۲۳۵ nm after ۵۰ hours with kerosene, ۱,۴ dioxane and ۲-ethyl-hexanol respectively. That smaller particle size was combined with high percent of aluminum content and low contamination level. On the other hand, the wet ball milling was employed to prepare aluminum nanoparticles using kerosene as milling solvent under the injection of argon gas with longer milling time which was ۶۰ hours. The average particle size of the sample prepared under argon was about ۵۰- ۸۰ nm with less amount of aluminum oxide.

Keywords:

Aluminum nanoparticles , Wet ball milling , Milling solvents , Kerosene