Morphology and magnetic properties of FeCo nanocrystalline powder produced by modified mechanochemical procedure

Properties of FeCo nanocrystalline intermetallic powders prepared by salt-matrix hydrogen reduction of a milled Fe2O3–Co3O4 mixture were investigated. The product of 72 ks ball-milling at 350 rpm was CoFe2O4 nanopowder. Reduction of this powder for 3.6 ks by hydrogen at 750 °C resulted in the formation of Fe0.67Co0.33 stoichiometric compound. Scanning electron microscopy, electron dispersive spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry were used to characterize the nanopowder. Using a salt-matrix (NaCl as a dispersion medium) resulted in the decrease of the reduction temperature and improvement of the morphology and magnetic properties of the nanopowder. Dispersion of the ball-milled product in Hexan resulted in further improvements of the magnetic properties.