Mixing the immiscible through high-velocity mechanical impacts: an experimental and theoretical study

KD Malviya and EF Oliveira and PAS Autreto and PM Ajayan and DS Galvao and CS Tiwary and K Chattopadhyay, JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS, 52, 445304 (2019).

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/ab36d1

In two-component metallic systems, thermodynamic immiscibility leads to phase separation such as in two-phase eutectic compositional alloys. The limit of the immiscibility of component elements under non-equilibrium conditions have been explored, but achieving complete miscibility and formation of single phase microstructures in eutectic alloys would be unprecedented. Here, we report that during the low-temperature ball milling that provides high energy impact, complete mixing of phases can occur in immiscible Ag-Cu eutectic alloys. From combined theoretical and experimental studies, we show that impact can produce solid solutions of Ag-Cu nanoparticles of eutectic composition. Our results show that phase diagrams of low dimensional materials under non-equilibrium conditions remain unexplored and could lead to new alloy microstructures drastically different from their bulk counterparts.

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