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DOI 10.1007/s10853-012-6909-x
REVIEW
Received: 26 July 2012 / Accepted: 18 September 2012 / Published online: 2 October 2012
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
A. F. Fuentes (&)
Cinvestav Unidad Saltillo, Carretera Saltillo-Monterrey
Km. 13.5, 25900 Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, Mexico
e-mail: fuentesaf@live.com
Present Address:
A. F. Fuentes
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
e-mail: fantonio@umich.edu
L. Takacs
Department of Physics, University of Maryland Baltimore
County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
e-mail: takacs@umbc.edu
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Introduction
Multicomponent oxides constitute an important class of
inorganic solids exhibiting an extraordinary range of
crystal structures and functional properties, which are
behind many advances of modern technology. The observation that some of their physical and chemical properties
depend not just on intrinsic characteristics such as crystal
structure and chemical composition, but are also sensitive
to the presence of structural defects has fueled the search
for new synthesis strategies and processing techniques
aiming to understand and control defect structure. Because
of the slow diffusion kinetics in the solid state, most synthetic approaches involve a previous dissolution step;
however, solid state reactions are gaining attention because
of ecological as well as energy reasons. Also, much interest
is focused nowadays on identifying and developing solvent-free and low-waste procedures, which avoid the use
and generation of hazardous substances, while providing
the necessary volume of the target material in an economically viable manner.
Several research groups worldwide have turned their
attention to mechanochemical processing, encouraged by the
simplicity of the process and the moderate cost of the
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General remarks
It is well known that high-energy ball milling is an efficient
method to mechanically activate materials and to affect
chemical reactions [4] and alloying [5]. Mechanochemical
processing can be carried out in several types of commercially available milling devices, each operating based
on very different mechanical principles and offering various capacities and milling efficiencies. Some research
groups have developed the ability to design and manufacture their own milling equipment. While the existence of
various options has many benefits, it substantially complicates the task of analyzing the literature as comparing
data published by different authors using different mills is
often difficult. The highest impact energies are achieved in
shaker mills and planetary mills, while drum mills, vibratory mills, and attritors deliver lower energy and a different
combination of impact, shear, and friction forces (Fig. 1).
They all cause activation and reactions in powder mixtures
by continuously exposing fresh surfaces and creating lattice defects, surface radicals, and broken bonds.
There are many promising results on the application of
mechanochemical processing to complex oxides. Nevertheless, the method has some inherent difficulties when
compared to its application to alloys, intermetallic compounds, and many other systems. Most importantly, oxide
particles are hard and brittle and consequently do not react
with each other unless a threshold stress is exceeded. In
practical terms, reactions between oxides require highly
energetic impacts of the milling balls; thus, only the most
powerful milling devices are suitable for the preparation of
mixed oxides. Extending the milling time in a low-energy
mill is usually not sufficient as weak impacts do not result
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ascertain whether or not a mechanochemical reaction is possible using a given set of milling parameters [5]; available data
concerning multicomponent oxides are still scarce. A recent
theory of ultrafast mechanochemical synthesis in MOM0 O3
oxide systems alleges that large molecular mass of the reactants, small difference of their Mohs hardness, and large
enthalpy of the chemical reaction involved are optimal for
high yield mechanochemical reactions [8, 9].
In spite of all the difficulties, it would be a mistake to
overemphasize the problems and ignore the enormous
potential of mechanochemical processing as a powerful
method for obtaining multicomponent oxides. The preparation of complex oxides can benefit from mechanochemical methods for two important reasons:
(1)
601
because of the strong correlation between magnetic properties and structural disorder in AB2O4 spinels (e.g., [17]).
Mossbauer spectroscopy provides unique information
about the local coordination and the magnetic and oxidation states of iron atoms that, combined with XRD and
other methods, allows for a comprehensive characterization
of ferrites [18]. The ideal spinel structure is formed by a
cubic close-packed array of oxygen atoms in which oneeighth of the tetrahedral and half of the octahedral interstitial sites (referred in the chemical formula as A and B,
respectively) are occupied by cations. The physical properties of spinels are determined by chemical composition
and cation distribution over the two available positions.
There are two types of oxides with spinel structure: In
normal spinels, the tetrahedral and octahedral sites are
commonly occupied by divalent (e.g., Mg, Ni, Co, etc.) and
trivalent cations (e.g., Al, Ga, Fe, etc.), respectively, while
in inverse spinels, the divalent ions occupy octahedral
sites, whereas half of the trivalent cations are located in the
tetrahedral sites. In general, inverse spinels have been
found to present the most valuable soft magnetic properties. Many intermediate cation distributions are possible,
with the degree of inversion often determined by the
preparation technique. For example, mechanical milling
can influence cation distribution and consequently the
magnetic properties.
Low conversion yields and partial reduction were a
common concern when using steel milling tools to combine
simple oxides to form ferrites. However, high yields could
be achieved when using tungsten carbide (WC) jars and
balls. For example, NiFe2O4 was obtained by milling the
appropriate mixture of NiO and a-Fe2O3 with almost
complete conversion [1921]. Thorough characterization
revealed that the product consisted of 613-nm grains with
a non-uniform coreshell structure, where an ordered inner
core is surrounded by a 12-nm thick disordered grain
boundary region. The core has the inverse spinel structure
of bulk NiFe2O4, while the cation distribution in the shell is
almost random.
This coreshell configuration is typical of mechanically
milled nanopowders, but not nanopowders prepared by
other techniques [22]. It has been observed in MnFe2O4
prepared by a milling-induced displacement reaction [23],
in Ca2SnO4 prepared by reactive milling from the corresponding elemental oxides [24], and in LiNbO3 and ZrO2
nanopowders prepared by milling commercially available
microcrystalline powders [2527]. But, X-ray absorption
spectroscopy studies (XAS) have shown that LiNbO3
nanoparticles prepared by the solgel method have wellordered microstructures with interfaces similar to the grain
boundaries in normal bulk solids [25].
The coreshell structure has a very strong influence on
the magnetic behavior of mechanochemically prepared
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needed to transform these metastable forms into the thermodynamically stable pyrochlores. Previously, disorder in
these pyrochlore titanates could only be achieved by
replacing Ti4? by a larger cation, ion irradiation, or high
pressure.
Solid solutions of Ln2Ti2-xZrxO7 and Gd2Ti2-xSnxO7
with pyrochlore structure were prepared under similar
experimental conditions [13, 76, 8183]. In these systems,
disorder generated by milling adds to the chemical disorder
introduced by substituting Zr4? or Sn4? for Ti4?. A typical
example is the Gd2Ti2-xZrxO7 system, where anion-deficient
fluorite-like materials form upon milling, irrespective of the
zirconium content. This is surprising as both limiting compounds are pyrochlores and mixed systems formed
by high-temperature reactions also crystallize with pyrochlore structure. These rather stable materials could
be progressively ordered by annealing. For example,
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Rare-earth silicates
Rare-earth apatite-type silicates have attracted attention
since the first reports by Nakayama [91, 92] about their
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sufficient to induce the crystallization of the target materials. Kharlamova et al. [96] analyzed the possibility of
using the same method to prepare Fe or Al-doped apatitetype lanthanum silicates. Although the apatite-type silicate
did form on milling in all cases, Fe3? was not incorporated
into the silicate network when using a-Fe2O3 or FeO(OH)
as iron sources. However, milling a mixture of La2O3 with
either Fe(NO3)3/SiO2 or Fe(HCOO)3 precursors yielded
single-phase Fe-doped lanthanum silicate. Aluminum
incorporation seems to be much easier and Al-doped lanthanum silicates with an apatite structure were prepared by
milling appropriate mixtures of La2O3, SiO2, and Al(OH)3
for a very short time. Similar apatite-type germanates,
which are also very good oxygen ion-conducting materials,
have been readily obtained by reactive milling [97] starting
from La2O3 and GeO2.
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Soft mechanochemistry
The observation that hydroxides and hydrated compounds
are much softer than the corresponding anhydrous oxides,
and consequently react more easily during mechanical
activation, led to the development of soft mechanochemistry [117]. Mechanochemical reactions between oxides
require highly energetic milling for an extended length of
time. The process is slow, energy inefficient, and results in
substantial contamination of the product. Reacting of the
softer and more reactive hydroxides requires a much lower
milling intensity and shorter milling time, saving energy
and providing cleaner products.
Of course, the product of milling hydroxides is not the
desired final product, but a precursor, a mixed, often
amorphous oxide-hydroxide that has to be annealed to
obtain the final product. The benefits of the milling step are
the formation of an intimately mixed precursor and a substantial decrease in the annealing temperature and time
compared to the conventional solid state reaction of the
oxides. During heat treatment, the unusual defect structures
Conclusions
Undoubtedly, mechanical milling has become a powerful
powder processing method for the room temperature synthesis of a number of important multicomponent oxides.
Recently, research activity in the field has grown steadily,
fueled by the development of new and more powerful mills
and the availability of new materials for milling media
(vials and balls) with increasing impact energy and resistance to abrasion. Contamination from the milling tools
might be a particularly serious problem when hard and
abrasive oxides are milled at high intensity for a prolonged
time, although several steps can be made to reduce the
effects of contamination. Many multicomponent oxides
have been prepared featuring a broad variety of crystal
structures (spinels, pyrochlores, fluorites, apatites, perovskites, etc.) and chemical composition. In some cases,
nucleation and crystallization of the reaction product takes
place from an amorphous matrix containing the reactants,
whereas in some others, both reactants and reaction products exist simultaneously during milling. The as-prepared
phases are frequently metastable, featuring a defect structure/microstructure that is difficult to obtain by means of
any other powder processing method. For example, some
authors have shown that mechanochemically prepared
oxides consist of grains presenting a non-uniform coreshell
structure, where an ordered inner core is surrounded by a
12-nm thick disordered grain boundary region. This core
shell configuration is typical of mechanically milled
nanopowders, but not of nanopowders prepared by other
techniques. In most cases, these metastable oxides show
rather good thermal stability; thus, heat treatments at high temperatures can be used to adjust the defect structure without
inducing transition to more stable crystallographic phases.
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