• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.345-353
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• 2001

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of zirconium addition to $Al_3$Nb intermetallic on the crystal structural modification and microstructural characterization of $Al_3$Nb intermetallic. Elemental Al, Nb, Zr powders and arc melted $Al_3$Nb and $Al_3$Zr intermetallic mixed powders were used as starting materials. MA was carried out in an attritor rotated with 300 rpm for 20 hours. The behavior of MA between two starting materials was some-what different in which the value of internal strain of the elemental powders was higher than that of the intermetallic powder. The intermetallic powder was much more disintegrated during the MA processing. In the case of the elemental powders, AlNb$_2$ phase were transformed to Al(Nb.Zr)$_2$ as a result of ternary addition of Zr element. With the successive heat treatment at 873K for 2 hours, the Al(Nb.Zr)$_2$ phase was transformed to more stable $Al_3$(Nb.Zr) phase. This transformation was clearly confirmed by the identification of X-ray peak position shift. On the other hand, in the carte of the intermetallic powder, there was no evidence of phase transformation to other ternary intermetallic compounds or amorphous phases, even in the case of additional heat treatment. However, nano-sized intermetallic with $Al_3$Nb and $Al_3$Zr were just well distributed instead of phase transformation.