Effect of PCA addition on microstructural and magnetic Properties a new Fe-based amorphous alloy prepared by Mechanical Alloying

Nowadays, Fe-based amorphous/nanocrystalline alloys have been greatly developed due to the excellent magnetic properties, as well as their relatively low cost. In this study, the effect of process control agent (PCA) addition on the microstructure and magnetic properties of Fe75Ta5Si10C10 alloy produced by mechanical alloying was investigated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the addition of 2 wt. % PCA notably increases the glass forming ability (GFA) in the present alloying system and the percentage of the amorphous phase eventually reaches a value of 94 wt.% after 120 h milling. The amorphization reaction upon addition of the PCA was further confirmed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyzes. The crystallite size and lattice strain after 50 h milling were calculated as 10 nm and 1.44% after PCA addition, and 15 nm and 1.37% before that, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results confirmed that the powder prepared with the PCA exhibits finer particles with a more spherical shape. Magnetic measurements demonstrated that that both saturation magnetization and coercivity decrease and the soft magnetic behavior is improved with the PCA addition. Therefore, overall results in this study contain improvement of glass forming ability and soft magnetic properties with the PCA addition.