• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.202-207
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• 2009

Nanocomposite formation of metal-metal oxide systems by mechanical alloying (MA) has been investigated at room temperature. The systems we chose are the $Fe_3O_4$-M (M = AI, Ti), where pure metals are used as reducing agent. It is found that $Fe/Al_2O_3$ and $Fe/TiO_2$ nanocomposite powders in which $Al_2O_3$ and $TiO_2$ are dispersed in ${\alpha}$-Fe matrix with nano-sized grains are obtained by MA of $Fe_3O_4$ with Al and Ti for 25 and 75 hours, respectively. It is suggested that the shorter MA time for the nanocomposite formation in $Fe/Al_2O_3$ is due to a large negative heat associated with the chemical reduction of magnetite by aluminum. X-ray diffraction results show that the average grain size of ${\alpha}$-Fe in $Fe/TiO_2$ nanocomposite powders is in the range of 30 nm. The change in magnetic properties also reflects the details of the solid-state reduction of magnetite by pure metals during MA.