Preparation of powders by mechanical alloying

The Zn-2.6Mg and Zn-2.6Mg-0.6Ag alloys were prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) for 4 hours using 800 rotation per minute (RPM) in a Retch E-max mill equipped with a water-cooling system capable of maintaining a temperature below 50 C. The powders used were pure Zn (99.9 %, particle size <149 micrometres, Alfa Aesar), Mg (99.8 %, particle size <44 micrometres, Alfa Aesar) and silver (99.9 %, particle size <20 micrometres, Safina a.s.). The ball-to-powder ratio (B/P ratio) was selected as 5:1. The grinding process was carried out using zirconia balls in a 50 ml elliptically designed vessel with zirconia coating. To prevent powder agglomeration during the mechanical alloying, 0.03g stearic acid was added to the powder mixture before milling. Materials were mechanically alloyed under a protective Ar atmosphere (99.96 %). The MA parameters were selected based on several experiments documenting the effect of various parameters on powder properties.

Data files description

Tif. files represents the figures of powders which were obtained using scanning electron microscopy. The results are presented in signal of both secondary and backscatter electrons. For files (1-4) are presentedfor both kind of powders.