Evidence for the formation mechanism of nanoscale microstructures in cryomilled Zn powder

Abstract Nanocrystalline Zn powder has been synthesized by a cryomilling method. The average grain size decreased exponentially with the cryomilling time and reached a minimum average grain size of around 17 nm. Large numbers of small grains (2∼6 nm) have been found in the very early stages of cryomilling. Dynamic recrystallization was used to explain the observed phenomena. The exothermic peaks revealed in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results were correlated with the release of microstrain as confirmed by the x-ray diffraction measurements.