Structural and magnetic properties of Fe100-xTix nanocrystalline powders prepared by planetary ball mill process

Nanocrystalline Fe100-xTix (x = 0-25) powders are synthesized via a mechanical alloying process, and investigated their properties with varying milling times (t(mill)) and compositions (x). Structural studies revealed that Fe sites were substituted by Ti, resulting in the formation of nonequilibrium Fe(Ti) solid solutions with large dislocation density (1.2 x 10(17)m(-2)-2.2 x 10(17)m(-2)) and fine crystallites (similar to 10 nm). The determined lattice constant reveals significant disorders. Magnetic properties illustrate that coercivity (H-C) increases up to a certain t(mill) and then decreases but increases progressively with x. This could be attributed to the development of dislocation density, grain boundary, and fine nanocrystals. Saturation magnetization (M-S) diminishes with increasing t(mill) and Ti. H-C and M-S were found to be similar to 0.40-4.01 kA/m and similar to 2.156-1.291T, respectively, in the Fe100-xTix. These results are quite useful for understanding the effect of Ti in Fe100-xTix and possible applications in electric transformer cores, as soft magnetic inclusions in hard/soft exchange coupled spring permanent magnets, etc.