Investigation of Structural, Morphological and Magnetic Properties of Equi-molar Fe-Si-Cu/Nb (at.%) Nanocrystals Synthesized by Mechanical Alloying

In this study, equimolar nanocrystalline Fe-Si-Cu (at.%) and Fe-Si-Nb (at.%) alloys were synthesized under an Argon atmosphere by a mechanical alloying method. Experimental parameters were determined as 350 rpm, 10:1 BPR, 120 hours. Phase structures of the synthesized alloys were investigated by X-Ray diffractometry, morphology and elemental analyzes were investigated by SEM-EDS, and magnetic properties were investigated by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) technique at room temperature. The crystallite size of the Fe-Si-Cu alloy was found to be 102.3, 22.5, 15.9 and 8.6 nm at the beginning of grinding, after 30, 60 and 120 hours grinding, respectively, and the lattice strains were 0.164%, 0.510%, 0.672% and 1.165%, while the Fe-Si-Cu alloy For the Nb alloy, the crystallite sizes were calculated as 140.8, 42.9, 16.8 and 7.8 nm, and the lattice strains were calculated as 0.134%, 0.301%, 0.639% and 1.271%. According to the magnetism results, the saturation magnetization (Ms) of the Fe-Si-Cu (at.%) alloy was found to be 3146 emu/g, while the saturation magnetization of the Fe-Si-Nb (at.%) alloy was found to be 8.91 emu/g. It was determined that Nb addition to the Fe-Si alloy system caused an increase in the coercivity values.