X-Ray Study of Strined Metal Powders

Lattice strains in Al, Cu and Ag powders produced by milling have been analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction. The lattice strain (epsilon) and Debye-Waller factor (B) are determined from the half-widths and integrated intensities of the Bragg reflections. In all three cases viz. Al, Cu and Ag, the Debye-Waller factor is found to increase with the lattice strain. From the correlation between the strain and effective Debye-Waller factor, the Debye-Waller factors for zero strain have been estimated for Al, Cu and Ag. The present work deals with a systematic application of Hall-Williamson method for particle size/crystallite size estimation of high energy milled Al, Cu and Ag nano powders. The variation of energy of vacancy formation as a function of lattice strain has been studied.