Use of Mechanical Alloying for Production of Aluminium Matrix Composites with Non-Agglomerated Nanodiamond Reinforcing Particles

Agglomeration is the main problem that prevents large-scale implementation of nanodiamonds in the production of composites. Mechanical alloying was applied for crushing the agglomerates and to obtain uniform distribution of the primary nanodiamond particles in aluminium matrix composites. The commonly used X-ray diffraction method fails to detect non-agglomerated diamond nanoparticles 5 to 6 nm in size, if they are incorporated in a metal matrix. Synchrotron radiation was used for the identification of non-agglomerated nanodiamonds. Scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron investigation showed that mechanical alloying does not lead to transformation of the diamond structure into other allotropic forms of carbon and the nanodiamond reinforcing particles are uniformly distributed in the aluminium matrix.