The requirement of materials with high strength to weight ratio leaded to the developments of aluminum matrix composites (AMCs). In this research chromium carbide as candidate reinforcement, due to its availability and ease of production, was considered. So, the aim of this research was the synthesis of aluminum matrix nano-composite with alumina/chromium carbide reinforcement. Cr 2 O 3 -C-Al and Cr-C-Al- Al 2 O 3 mixtures were milled at different time. XRD results show that no reaction occurs after up to 60 hours milling. Compacted samples (pellet) of the activated powders after 20 hours milling were heated at 900 o C for 90 minutes. The results show that only in the case of the sample that contain Cr with low amount of Al, chromium carbide was produced and the hardness of the sample was about 8.73 GPa. When Al content of the sample was higher than 20 weight percent, Cr 2 AlC was produced rather than Cr 3 C 2 . For the samples that contained Cr 2 O 3 only with Al higher than stochiometry, chromium oxide was completely reduced. In the case of samples with metallic Cr and high amount of Al, after heating at 900 o C for 90 minutes, the product was a mixture of Cr 2 AlC + Cr 3 C 2 + Al 2 O 3 . When chromium oxide was used in the sample, due to exothermic reduction of Cr 2 O 3 , the reaction time was only 15 minutes. Keywords : AMCs, mechanical milling, mechanochemical synthesis, thermal synthesis.
