Nanodiamond as an effective reinforcing component for nano-copper

This work reports for the first time the use of nanodiamond (nD) particles as a reinforcing component for alloying with nano-copper (nCu). Significant rise in Vickers microhardness (HV) was realised for nCu after ball milling together with nD. Thus, mechanical alloying (MA) proved to be an effective strategy for strengthening copper with nD, and perhaps for other metallic alloys as well. The absence of detectable wear and contamination for the MA-processed nCu specimens with nD is also considered as one of the promising aspects of this work. Short milling time of only 2 h was enough to achieve the reported rise in HV. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.