Structural and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Fe–Co–Ni alloy processed by mechanical alloying

• This article focuses on mechanical alloying of Fe50Co30Ni20 composition.
• Structural and magnetic properties were investigated.
• Saturation magnetization was increased sharply after 16 h of milling time.
• The heat treatment revealed the signature of Fe3O4 as well as FeNi3 and Co crystalline phases.

In this present work, a nanostructured iron–cobalt–nickel alloy with Fe50Co30Ni20 composition has been processed by mechanical alloying. The structural and magnetic properties have been investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer. It is shown that the crystallize size reaches to about 18.7 nm after 32 h milling time. A remarkable decrease in coercivity after 16 h milling time and also a continuous increase in remanent magnetization during the mechanical alloying process are observed. Heat treatment of the samples milled at 32 and 48 h demonstrates the crystalline constituent elements and also Fe3O4 crystalline phase.