Microstructural and magnetic properties of nanostructured Fe and Fe50Co50 powders prepared by mechanical alloying

This work focuses on the preparation of nanocrystalline Fe and Fe50Co50 powders using high-energy milling. A body-centred cubic (bcc) nanocrystalline Fe50Co50 alloy is resulted after 8 h of the milling process with a lattice parameter close to a = 0.2862 nm and with an average grain size of about 12 nm. The coercivity increased from 72 to 102 Oe, by milling for 3 h, followed by a reduction of 47.95 Oe on milling for longer periods. This latter effect is attributed to the effect of the very fine crystallite size associated with prolonged milling. The saturation magnetization increased dramatically from 178 to 208 A m2/kg due to the formation of Fe50Co50 alloy.