Incipient chemical instabilities of nanophase Fe-Cu alloys prepared by mechanical alloying

We used Mossbauer spectrometry, X-ray diffractometry, a novel imaging method of electron energy loss spectrometry, and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) to study early stage thermal instabilities of nanophase Fe-Cu alloys prepared by mechanical attrition. Mossbauer spectrometry confirmed previous reports of an extended Cu solubility in the body-centered cubic (bcc) phase of the as-milled material. Mossbauer spectrometry also provided evidence that in the compositional range of bcc-face-centered cubic (fcc) two-phase coexistence, the bcc phase had a Cu concentration nearly the same as the overall composition of the alloy. After the as-milled powders were annealed at temperatures as low as 200 degrees C, however, Mossbauer spectrometry showed significant chemical unmixing of the Cu and Fe atoms. In annealed bcc Fe-20 pet Cu alloys, SANS measurements indicated that Cu segregated to grain boundaries. This segregation of Cu atoms to bcc grain boundaries did not alter significantly the tendency for grain growth, however. X-ray diffractometry showed that grain growth during thermal annealing was similar for all alloys, although grain growth was small at temperatures below 300 degrees C. The two-phase (bcc plus fcc) alloy of Fe-30 pet Cu was more unstable against chemical segregation than were the single-phase (bcc or fcc) alloys. Energy-filtered imaging indicated that the Cu atoms segregated to regions around the bcc grains, perhaps to the adjacent fee crystallites.