Fabrication and Microstructure of Fe-Al Intermetallic Compound Powders by Mechanical Alloying

The Fe-Al intermetallic compound powders were fabricated by mechanical alloying and heat treatment process. In this research, the phase composition and microstructure of the Fe-Al intermetallic compound powders produced by different milling time and heat treatment at 800oC and 1000oC were investigated. The XRD patterns results showed that the Fe-Al intermetallic compound powders were fabricated by mechanical alloying for 60h. After heat treatment at 800oC and 1000oC, the Fe-Al intermetallic compound powders transformed into the Fe3Al powders. With the increase of milling time, the mechanical alloying extent of Fe-Al intermetallic compound powders would be increased remarkably, and the particles sizes decreased remarkably. The microstructure showed that the mean particles size of the Fe-Al intermetallic compound powders after milling for 60h was rather fine and about 4-5μm. The microstructures showed that mean particles size of the Fe3Al intermetallic compound powders produced by heat treatment at 800oC and 1000oC was also about 4-5μm.