The Effect of Grinding Time on the Mechanical Activation of the Mixture of Al-B2O3 Powders

Abstract

In this study, the characterization of the product obtained after the mechanical activation of B2O3 powders with aluminium metal powders, which is the first stage of elementary boron production by aluminothermic method, was investigated. For this purpose, B2O3 powders mixed with metallic aluminium powders in different Al/B2O3 ratios with a ball/ore ratio of 20/1 were activated in a high energy mill for various times. It has been observed that the energy transferred to the environment during activation causes a decrease in the amount of B2O3 as well as its size. After the mechanical activation process, an increasing rate of amorphization was observed in the samples depending on the grinding time in the XRD images of the samples. When the peaks of these samples were compared with the peaks in the literature, it was also seen that they corresponded to some Al-B compounds. It was observed that amorphization decreased as the amount of aluminium in the mixture increased. it was thought that the reason for the decrease in amorphization was the elastic collisions of the steel balls and aluminium, which is a ductile metal, during the grinding in the mill.