Cryo-milling

Union Process 01-HD high-energy attritor is available at the Department of Physics of Materials. The attritor is capable of milling at both cryogenic temperatures (in liquid nitrogen or argon) and room temperature under an inert atmosphere.

Metal powders undergo severe plastic deformation during mechanical milling. Thanks to cryogenic temperatures, dynamic recovery and recrystallization are suppressed in the material, which allows preparing nano-grained material within several hours.

Cryogenic milling is also used for particle refinement of elastic or plastic materials (e.g. polymers) via cooling the material under its glass transition temperature and subsequent attritor milling.

The materials can be handled in a glovebox under an inert atmosphere of Ar. Powders with particles under 1 mm can be conventionally used as a starting material (bigger particles may be possibly used on request).

Contact: Mgr. Jiří Kozlík