Metastable phase formation in mechanically alloyed and ball milled Ti–Si

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Abstract
The Ti–Si system is chosen as a model system to study the mechanical alloying of elemental powder blends in which one of the components is brittle. In addition, the stability of intermetallic compounds upon milling is investigated, in order to interpret the metastable phase formation during the milling process. Detailed x‐ray investigations show that during mechanical alloying, a solution of Si in Ti preceeds the formation of amorphous or intermetallic phases. The selection of phases formed, as well as the final state, are influenced by the overall composition of the powder blends, and by the milling procedure applied. However, predictions can be made by considering the free energy curves of the stable and metastable phases in the Ti–Si system, which have been calculated by the CALPHAD method. Milling of the intermetallic compounds generally leads to the same final state as the mechanical alloying of elemental powder blends with corresponding compositions. These results demonstrate that the intermetallic compounds are energetically destabilized upon milling, allowing for phase transformations into metastable phases, such as amorphous or metastable crystalline alloys. The energetic destabilization of intermetallic compounds mainly originates from the chemical disorder caused by the milling process.