Structural, Morphological, and Magnetic Properties of the Binary Fe60Co40 Alloy Synthesized by Mechanical Alloying Processing

Nanocrystalline of Fe 60 Co 40 powders are prepared by mechanical alloying using ball milling technique (BMT) under several milling times (of 0, 1, 3, 5 hrs).Structural diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), element dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and the vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) are used for investigation of the structural changes, magnetic and morphological properties during the milling times.XRD analysis suggests the face-centred cubic (f.c.c.) phase formed successfully after initial milling time.The particle sizes are decreased significantly with the milling time.The SEM results show that particles of all practical sizes are approximately of spherical shapes with uniform sizes.The EDS results show no strange elements in the milling media.The magnetic properties appear to be sensitive to milling times.The saturation magnetization (M s ) is found to increase with increasing milling time, but the coercivity (H c ) is found to decrease, so that the Fe 60 Co 40 -nanoalloy powder exhibits a soft ferromagnetic character.