Investigation of the Microstructural, Morphological, and Magnetic Properties of Mechanically Alloyed Co60Fe18Ti18Si4 Powders

Recently, there has been an increasing demand for Co-based alloys in modern industrial applications because of their excellent magnetic properties. Therefore, given the importance of obtaining high-quality Co-based alloy, such as Co60Fe18Ti18Si4 (at%), was synthesized using the mechanical alloying (MA) process. The research concerned the microstructural, morphological, and magnetic properties evolution of Co60Fe18Ti18Si4 (at%) alloy powders synthesized by MA in a high-energy planetary ball mill under argon (Ar) atmosphere, at a speed of 300 rpm. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer analysis were employed to characterize different alloy powdered samples as a function of MA time (10 min-50 h). The XRD result indicates that the synthesized Co-based alloy powder has a widened peak of bcc-(Co, Fe, Ti, Si) solid solution appeared after 50 h of milling time. The crystallite and the lattice strain were achieved to about 8 nm and 1.235%, respectively, after 50 h of milling time. The average particle size was obtained to about 2.727 mu m after 50 h of milling time, as observed from SEM analysis. From the VSM analysis, it was observed that the synthesized alloy powders show soft ferromagnetic behaviour. After 50 h of milling time, the magnetic saturation and the coercivity were attained to about 89.68 emu/g and 155.08 Oe, respectively.