Surface area effects on the early stages of the mechanical alloying of Ag50Cu50 powder mixtures

Ag and Cu powders with selected particle size have been synthesized by chemical solution methods, and employed to prepare Ag50Cu50 powder mixtures with total surface area known. Their mechanical processing induced the formation of Ag- and Cu-rich solid solutions at rates increasing with the total surface area. This can be ascribed to an extension of the mutual solubility limits, and to a simultaneous increase of the total amount of powders participating in dissolution processes at each collision.