Intercalated Intermetallic Compounds AlTi(3) and Fe(2)Ti in Microrods and Microtubes Obtained by Invariant Reaction of Mechanically Milled System Al(43)Ti(36)Fe(21)

This paper reports the production of intermetallic microrods and microtubes from the decomposition of an intermetallic compound in an AlTiFe system. The intermetallic compound was obtained by mechanosynthesis of elemental powders of Al, Ti and Fe over 300 h at 400 rpm, sintering from compacted powder particles at 300 MPa per minute and at 900 °C for 3600 s in an argon atmosphere. The milled and sintered samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The intermetallic AlTi(3) and Fe(3)Al phases were obtained during the milling process. After sintering, a decomposition of these intermetallic phases was found—Al(3)Ti(0.75)Fe(0.25), Al(3)Ti, FeTi, AlTi(3), Ti(9)Al(23), Fe(2)Ti, Al(86)Fe(14) and Al(0.4)Fe(0.6). As a result of the decomposition, we observed the formation of hexagonal rods with intercalated phases of AlTi(3) and Fe(2)Ti.