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.