Effect of Particle Size on Measured Thermal Properties of Ball Milled Mg Metal Nano Powder

Mg powder was ball milled in an argon inert atmosphere. The milled powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction. The high-energy ball milling of Mg after 25 hours resulted in particle size of 21 nm. Lattice strains in Mg powder produced by milling have been analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction. The lattice strain (ε) and Debye-Waller factor (B) are determined from the half-widths and integrated intensities of the Bragg reflections. Debye-Waller factor is found to increase with the lattice strain. From the correlation between the strain and effective Debye-Waller factors have been estimated for Mg. The variation of energy of vacancy formation as a function of lattice strain has been studied.