STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF ROD MILLED CU2O AND TI POWDERS DURING MECHANICAL SOLID-STATE REDUCTION

The mechanical solid state reduction (MSSR) of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) to metallic copper (Cu) using elemental titanium (Ti) as reducing agent (RA), is reported. This process takes place in an argon atmosphere rod mill at room temperature. The progress of MSSR has been followed by m eans of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and differ ential thermal analysis. The metallographic characterizations of the r od-milled powders were studied by optical microscope. The results have shown that a complete reduction of Cu2O to pure metallic Cu occurs af ter 360 ks of rod milling time. The end-product of the MSSR process is a mixture of nanocrystalline Cu and TiO2 powders with an average crys tallite size of 7 nm.