Structural characteristics and magnetic properties of bulk nanocrystalline Fe84Zr2Nb4B10 alloy prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering consolidation

Magnetic properties of Fe84Zr2Nb4B10 sample were investigated. The sample was produced from nanocrystalline powders made by the mechanical alloying (MA) and consolidation using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. Effects of milling time on phase transformation, structural characteristics, and magnetic properties of powders were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and physical property measure system (PPMS), respectively. Results show that nanostructured α-Fe supersaturated solid solution is obtained in the final MAed products. The saturation magnetization (Ms) increased with increasing milling time and became constant at 130 h, but the coercivity (Hc) increased firstly and then decreased. The consolidated bulk sample exhibited a high density of 6.893 g·cm-3, there was no phase change during SPS process, and the saturation magnetization and susceptibility of the SPSed bulk sample improved in comparison with the milled powders. The variation of magnetic parameters can be explained by nano-scale effect and Herzer model.