For the solid-state synthesis of the sulfide-based solid electrolyte, most of the research papers use Zirconia vials and balls (in case of ball milling). Could we use alumina or stainless steel vials and balls instead?
Abu Faizal
Contamination of product is a certainty and a given with ball milling. Considerations revolve around the hardness and size of the balls in addition to the tumbling conditions and which contaminants can be tolerated or not..
Certainly iron sulfides form easily and this may be the reason. Take a look at the Ellingham diagram for your elements (an example can be found @ Article Sintering Studies and Microstructural Evolution of Fe-MoS
zirconia balls have following advantages in solid state synthesis in ball milling.
Muhammad Asim Khan
While you are correct in all you write, we need to note than 99% of the energy in a ball mill is converted to heat, noise, and (some) light. Only around 1% of the energy is actually involved in comminution (Bond, 1953).
Dear Abu Faizal although I'm an inorganic chemist. I'm certainly not a proven expert in this field. However, some general considerations would be the following: First of all, zirconium is harder than iron (5 vs. 4 on the Mohs scale). Moreover, zirconium belongs to the group of early transition metals (groups 3-5 in the Periodic Table). According to the HSAB principle (= Hard and Soft Acids and Bases) Zr4+ is a hard metal cation. As such it doesn't match with the soft sulfide ion S2-. In other words, zirconium does not have a high affinity to sulfur, whereas, as mentioned by Alan F Rawle iron sulfide forms quite readily (iron belongs to the group of late transition metals).
Frank T. Edelmann
I think we're talking about zirconia (ZrO2) here and not zirconium (Zr).
Dear Alan F Rawle Sorry, I overlooked this! You are absolutely right. 😳At least we agree in the point that stainless steel could form iron sulfide under these conditions.
Zirconium balls are highly resistant to corrosion, durability, and strength.
Chian Heng Lee
Zirconium is a metal - balls of zicronium are not used in ball milling. I think you mean zirconia, ZrO2...
Dear Abu Faizal I fully agree with Alan F Rawle in that only zirconia (= zirconium dioxide, ZrO2) balls can be used for ball milling. Please see e.g. the following link provided by a manufacturer of zirconia balls:
Zirconia Mill Ball
http://www.lab-mills.com/ball-mill-medias/zirconia.html
Unlike zirconium metal ZrO2 is a white material.
Dear Alan F Rawle , Instead of Zirconia balls what other components can be used in ball milling?
Md. Nurnobi Islam
Please open another question on RG to avoid confusing this thread.
Google is your friend...
Dear Abu Faizal and Md. Nurnobi Islam "Instead of Zirconia balls what other components can be used in ball milling?" Thank you for your interesting technical question. It is generally advisable to use the "Search" function of ResearchGate to find and access relevant articles and answers about a certain topic. Cited below please see a collection of potentially useful questions and answers about "ball milling":
https://www.researchgate.net/topic/Ball-Milling
Also please have a look at the following useful research article entitled
Effect of Different Milling Media for Surface Coating on the Copper Powder Using Two Kinds of Ball Mills with Discrete Element Method Simulation
This article is Open Access and can be freely downloaded from the internet. For your information please find attached a copy of this paper.
In this work the authors use alumina and stainless steel balls in addition to zirconia balls.
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