Morphological observation of the mechanically alloying (Bi2O3)(0.80)(Nb2O5)(0.20)

The mechanical alloying (MA) process of the oxide ion conductor (Bi2O3)(0.8 0)(Nb2O6)(0.20) has been studied by means of X-ray diffraction, SEM observa tion and particle size measurements. The formation of the solid solution wa s supposed to proceed by flattening the sample powders into plate shapes an d the repeated laminations as the case of the formation of metallic alloys. During milling, the crystallite size decreases down to 10 nm or smaller wh ile the aggregated particle size was remaining about 1 mu m.