Effect of thermal treatment on structure and Curie temperature of Ni-Cu (70.4-29.6;W/W) ferromagnetic alloy

Ni-Cu (70.4-29.6 ; wt%) alloy was prepared by a Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR) furnace and the effect of thermal treatment on structure and Curie temperature was investigated. The results of Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) and EDS analysis showed that specimens with 4 times remelting were homogenized. The Curie temperature of alloy that measured by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) under condition of slow cooling across from order-disorder transition of alloy was higher than specimens quenched from recrystallization temperature. Curie temperature (TC) of alloy that quenched after melting was 60 ͦ C ,TC of sample that annealed in 1000 ͦ C for 24 hours then quenched in water was 40 ͦ C and sample that after annealing twice heated up to 70 ͦ C was 45.5 °C .
The d-spacing of the specimen without heat treatment, calculated by X-Ray Diffraction, had a little increase due to clustering. In addition, the surface morphology by optical microscope confirmed this behavior of Cu–Ni alloys in the different heat treatment.