Solid-State Amorphization, Crystallization Behavior and Thermal Stability of MA-SiBCN Powders

Mechanical alloying (MA) usually involves repeated welding, fracturing, and rewelding of powder particles which promotes mechanochemical effect making possible the homogeneous mixture at atomic levels and new chemical bonding states. MA-driven mechanochemical reactions have some advantages over the conventional powder processing techniques. For example, MA can induce completely amorphous SiBCN powder with higher thermal stability while only partial amorphous phase is synthesized by powder metallurgy or sol–gel processing ways. The appropriate ball milling parameters of MA, is critical to the preparation of amorphous SiBCN powder, though their atomic structures still remain open to debate despite considerable experimental studies and computer simulation.