Influence of particle size and compaction pressure on the magnetic properties of iron-phenolic soft magnetic composites

This paper investigates the effect of particle size and compaction pressure on the magnetic properties of iron-phenolic soft magnetic composites (50 Hz-1000 kHz). The results showed that the optimum amount of phenolic resin to attain maximum permeability and minimum loss factor at 10 kHz is 0.7 wt% for samples containing iron powder with average particle size similar to 150 mu m compacted at 800 MPa. In accordance with this resin content, at high frequencies (> 300 kHz), the sample with lower particle size similar to 10 mu m exhibits higher magnetic permeability, higher operating frequencies and lower imaginary part of permeability. With increase in the compaction pressure, specific resistivity decreases and imaginary and real parts of permeability increase at low frequencies. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.