Magnetic and structural properties of amorphous/nanocrystalline Fe42Ni28Zr8Ta2B10C10 soft magnetic alloy produced by mechanical alloying

• Microstructure and magnetic behavior of Fe42Ni28Zr8Ta2B10C10 were studied.
• Minimum coercivity was found to be ∼24 Oe which is less than other similar systems.
• Crystallite size decreased with milling time and reached about 2.5 nm at 176 h.
• About 92% of the structure was calculated to be amorphous at 110 h of milling.
• Trends of MS and HC with milling time were studied.

Magnetic behavior, microstructural evolution, and amorphization studies of Fe42Ni28Zr8Ta2B10C10 alloy, synthetized by mechanical alloying, were investigated. The non-equilibrium microstructure originated from a grain size reduction to about 2.5 nm indicated by X-ray diffraction and the introduction of internal strain up to 3.8%. The results showed that as the milling time increased the amorphous phase became dominant and reached about 92 wt.% at 176 h. The magnetic measurements which were obtained by vibrating sample magnetometer, showed an increase in saturation magnetization up to 12 h and then a decrease until 66 h followed by a slow increase. Simultaneously, the coercivity increased, decreased and finally reached a constant level of about 24 Oe. The value of coercivity obtained in the present study is less than the values reported for the widely investigated mechanically alloyed Fe–Ni–Zr–B alloys, which shows this alloy is a very good soft magnet.

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