I need very fine Mg powder (atleast less than 1 micrometer) for spark plasma sintering (SPS).
would you please let me know which way you suggest to produce (or even prepare or buy) sub-micron (or even nano) Mg powder?
Best regards
Unfortunately, there is no way to make a submicron Mg powder. Magnesium has such a great affinity for oxygen that such a powder becomes oxide even in the best technical vacuum.
I would have suggested fine ball milling for several hours but like Vadim rightly said, Mg is a very reactive material with high affinity for air
Dear Seun and Owoeye!
Thank you so much for the reply.
Do you think if it is possible to SPS MgO (instead of Mg) and then remove O by C or sth?
Best regards
It is also not possible to reduce MgO with carbon. MgO can not be reduced at all with any element (only with Si at 1500°C in vacuum )!
Metallic magnesium is not extracted from oxide, but by electrolysis from chloride:
http://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/metals/magnesium.html
As already pointed out, Mg will react with oxygen in the air (often in a pyrophoric manner) to produce MgO. In water Mg(OH)2 is the product. Only in an inert gas stream will sub-micron particles of Mg exist. Once brought together on surfaces or as particle-particle contact then solid-solid diffusion will result in a fused mass of sub- and post-micron aggregates and agglomerates. See:
November 3rd, 2015 Adhesion and cohesion http://tinyurl.com/zwb2wlh
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