Digest Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures Vol. 10, No. 2, April - June 2015, p. 721 - 728 SYNTHESIS OF A NANOSTRUCTURED Al ALLOY MODIFIED WITH Fe BY HIGH ENERGY BALL MILLING R. A. RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ a,b* , A. MOLINA-OCAMPO b , J. PORCAYO- CALDERÓN b , J. JUAREZ-ISLAS c a Universidad Politécnica del Estado de Morelos, Boulevard Cuauhnahuac 566, Col. Lomas del Texcal, 62574 Jiutepec, Morelos México b Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, UAEM, Av. Universidad 1001, Col, Chamilpa, Cuernavaca Mor., México. c Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales-UNAM, circuito exterior S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, C. P. 04510, México DF, México. In this work, mainly a solid solution of Fe dissolved in Al matrix was prepared by the high energy ball milling technique from a stoichiometric mixture of high purity powders of Fe and Al. The ball milling process was performed by using a fixed ball weight/sample weight ratio of 10:1. The particle size increased significantly from 4 to 6 h of milling, but after that time, decreased to the end of milling time (10h). According to X-ray diffraction analysis, a solid solution of Fe in Al (α-Al) begun to form at the fourth hour of milling. The crystallite size corresponding to the solid solution (α-Al) was decreased as the milling time advanced. Also the calculated lattice parameter displayed a tendency to decrease as the milling time elapsed. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed the precipitation of the Al 5 Fe 2 and Al 13 Fe 4 phases in the Al matrix. (Received April 4, 2015; Accepted June 30, 2015) Keywords: Al alloy, ball milling, microstructural characterization, solid solution, nanostructured alloy. 1. Introduction Mechanical alloying MA is one of the most promising methods that have been rapidly developed and has been employed to produce nano-crystalline materials in an industrial scale. 1 In previous studies, a remarkable improvement was observed in some of the mechanical properties as a result of a nano-crystalline structure obtained by the process of mechanical alloying. 2,3 Mechanical alloying is a powder processing technique which enables production of homogeneous materials, from a mixture of elemental powders. 4,5 In mechanical alloying, the powder particles are trapped between the balls that collide with one another during the mechanical milling, where they undergo deformation, welding or fracture, depending on the mechanical behavior of the basic components of powder. 6,7 Compared to the conventional route of solidification, mechanical alloying is an inexpensive and simpler technique to produce the material in a nano-crystalline or amorphous state. Furthermore, because the mechanical alloying process is performed in the solid state, the restrictions imposed by the phase diagrams do not seem to apply to the phases obtained by this technique. 8 The process of mechanical alloying (AM) can produce alloys with nanoscale grain size and a disordered crystal structure, these are microstructural characteristics that are desired to improve the mechanical properties, particularly the ductility of the binary Fe-Al alloys. The mechanical alloying process has successfully synthesized Fe-Al alloy systems with different compositions and it has been shown that different phases are formed depending on the milling * Corresponding autor: rdiaz.unam@gmail.com