Features of fabricating Fe-Ga–Bakelite magnetostrictive composites

Magnetostrictive metal-organic composites are an important class of materials for various electrical engineering applications. Fe-Ga alloy is one of the main materials used as a basis for such composites. Epoxy resin is generally used as the organic matrix. The problem of these composites is the extremely low temperature stability of their properties due to softening of the resin at elevated temperatures. This paper is the first to propose using Bakelite, a widespread organic compound based on phenol-formaldehyde resin, to create composites. Composites based on Fe-Ga powder with the addition of 5 wt% of Bakelite were produced by cold pressing at different pressures. Besides, the effect of powder annealing after milling in a ball mill on the structure and properties of the composites is studied. It is shown that the composite made with the same parameters from the annealed powder has a significantly higher magnetostriction.