Structural, microstructural characterisation and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Fe-10 wt% Pb alloy powders synthesised by mechanical alloying process

Nanocrystalline Fe-10Pb (wt%) powders were synthesised by mechanical alloying processes using the Vario-planetary high-energy ball mill PM 400 Retsch. The phase evolution and magnetic properties were in-vestigated as a function of the milling time, t, (variation from 0 to 36 h range) by using the X-ray Diffraction (XRD) technique, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The complete formation of FePb (bcc) was observed after a milling time of 16 h. When milling time increases, the lattice parameter decrease while the grain size decreases to 18.53 nm after a milling time of 36 h. Powder morphologies at different formation stages of the alloy was observed by SEM. The elemental maps of Fe and Pb done with EDX experiments, confirmed the results found by XRD about the evolution of the alloy formation. The results of vibrating sample magnetometer suggested that magnetic properties of Fe-10Pb (wt%) alloy nanoparticles were affected by composition, size and mor-phology of the particles. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.