Effect of Boron and its Influence on Mechanically Alloyed FeCo Nanocrystals

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of adding boron as a ternary addition to binary FeCo alloys. Fe–Co–B ternary alloys with varying boron concentrations between 0 and 2 wt% were synthesized through mechanical alloying. The study aims to analyze the structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of the Fe–Co alloy matrix with the inclusion of boron. The XRD results showed a single solid solution phase of Fe–bcc structure for all alloys, regardless of the boron concentration. It was seen that the low solubility of boron in Fe–Co caused the formation of hard structures at the grain boundaries, resulting in an increase in hardness with an increase in boron concentration. On the other hand, a decreasing trend was observed in coercivity, which is ascribed to the formation of FeB at the grain boundaries, as proved from XRD analysis. An increase in boron concentration did not seem to significantly affect the saturation magnetization, which remained in the range of 190 ± 10 emu/g for all Fe–Co–B alloys. The experimental data was cross checked and further insights were gained; DFT calculations were performed using Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package.