Abstract
Contemporary materials with predetermined properties can be successfully synthesized by utilizing the principles of hydrometallurgy and powder metallurgy. The results of developing a new procedure for the synthesis of ultrafine and nanocomposite powders based on copper, silver and alumina are presented in this paper. A two-component nanocomposite powder, Cu-Al₂O₃, was synthesized by a thermochemical procedure, by deposition from an aqueous solution of soluble metal salts, Cu(NO₃)₂ and Al(NO₃)₃. A three-component Cu-Ag-Al₂O₃ powder was produced by mechanically alloying nanocomposite Cu-Al₂O₃ powder and Cu-Ag powder, synthesized by the thermochemical procedure. The produced powders were characterized by determining the particle specific area, pouring density and fluidness, differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis (DTA-TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Key words
copper, alumina, silver, thermochemical processing, nanocomposites

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