SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NANOSTRUCTURED MATERIALS BASED ON Fe50Co50 AND Fe75Co25

Abstract

Nowadays, nanostructured magnetic materials are of great interest both in basic research on magnetism and in technological applications. The interest lies in the nanometric particle size, which affects their magnetic properties. Nanostructured magnetic materials based on FeCo have relevant soft magnetic properties, useful in potential applications in information storage equipment and devices. In this paper, nanostructured materials based on Fe50Co50 and Fe75Co25 were synthesized using the mechanical alloying method. The influence that the composition and milling time have on the morphology, structure and magnetic properties of nanostructured powders was studied by means of X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM). After 30 h milling, X-ray diffraction results confirmed a body-centred cubic nanostructured Fe phase with a crystallite size of about 13.6 nm for Fe50Co50 and 22 nm for Fe75Co25, and SEM analysis showed the morphology evolution of the powder particles and the lamellar structure. A maximum saturation magnetization (Ms) of 275 emu/g was obtained for Fe75Co25 which had been milled for 30 h.

Keywords

• Mechanical alloying
• Magnetic alloy
• Nanotechnology
• X-ray diffraction
• Scanning electron microscopy
• Magnetic properties