Planetary Milling and Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis of Al-TiB₂ Composites

The paper explores the influence of planetary milling on the temperature and velocity of Al-Ti-B powder mixture combustion and also on the structure and phase composition of the reaction products. It is found that the time increase of planetary milling modifies the structure of the powder particles, improves the density of compacted specimens, and increases the temperature and velocity of their combustion. These time dependences are extreme, with maximum values during 180 s planetary milling. Experiments show that the reaction products consist of an aluminum matrix with uniformly distributed particles of titanium diboride of not over 1 mu m in size. The average particle size changes with the increase in the time of the planetary milling of the initial powder mixture.