Influence of Boron Carbide Addition on Particle Size of Copper Zinc Alloys Synthesized by Powder Metallurgy

Abstract

Material systems with the combination of metals and non-metals forming an alloy systems has numerous advantages when compared with the monolithic materials. Synthesizing such materials systems can easily be done by many solid state processing methods. Copper Zinc (Cu-Zn) forms a ductile material system finding its applications in various conductive and tribological applications. Nano composites finds lot more applications due to the high specific area occupied by the particles. Focus of the current project is on the study of influence of Boron Carbide (B4C) powders addition into the Cu-Zn matrix while synthesizing them through high energy ball milling. B4C powders are added to the matrix at 10 % by volume. Particle size of the powder are determined by Scherer and Williamson-Hall synthesis methods after characterizing the milled powders by X-Ray diffraction (XRD). As the B4C powders are brittle, maximum volume fraction of these powders are expected to influence particle size of Cu-Zn alloy powders. Powder morphology is analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Influence of B4C powder particles upon grain size of Cu-Zn alloy powder blends was very minimum due to the tendency of particles to get saturated with respect to particle size after repeated milling.