In situ synthesis of TiC nano-reinforcements in aluminum matrix composites during mechanical alloying

Abstract In this paper the possibility of fabrication of titanium carbide reinforcing nanoparticles inside an aluminum matrix by in situ synthesis during mechanical alloying will be discussed. The application of nanodiamond particles as carbon precursor for synthesis allowed obtaining TiC particles in nanosized form due to the size of initial nanodiamond particle of 4–6 nm. The developed composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and differential scanning calorimetry.