• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.245-251
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• 2015

We have applied mechanical alloying (MA) to produce soft magnetic composite material using a mixture of elemental $Fe_2O_3$-Mg powders. An optimal milling and heat treatment conditions to obtain soft magnetic ${\alpha}$-Fe/MgO composite with fine microstructure were investigated by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurement. It is found that ${\alpha}$-Fe/MgO composite powders in which MgO is dispersed in ${\alpha}$-Fe matrix are obtained by MA of $Fe_2O_3$ with Mg for 30 min. The saturation magnetization of ball-milled powders increases with increasing milling time and reaches to a maximum value of 69.5 emu/g after 5 h MA. The magnetic hardening due to the reduction of the ${\alpha}$-Fe grain size by MA was also observed. Densification of the MA powders was performed in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) machine at $800{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$ under 60 MPa. X-ray diffraction result shows that the average grain size of ${\alpha}$-Fe in ${\alpha}$-Fe/MgO nanocomposite sintered at $800^{\circ}C$ is in the range of 110 nm.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.202-207
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• 2009

Nanocomposite formation of metal-metal oxide systems by mechanical alloying (MA) has been investigated at room temperature. The systems we chose are the $Fe_3O_4$-M (M = AI, Ti), where pure metals are used as reducing agent. It is found that $Fe/Al_2O_3$ and $Fe/TiO_2$ nanocomposite powders in which $Al_2O_3$ and $TiO_2$ are dispersed in ${\alpha}$-Fe matrix with nano-sized grains are obtained by MA of $Fe_3O_4$ with Al and Ti for 25 and 75 hours, respectively. It is suggested that the shorter MA time for the nanocomposite formation in $Fe/Al_2O_3$ is due to a large negative heat associated with the chemical reduction of magnetite by aluminum. X-ray diffraction results show that the average grain size of ${\alpha}$-Fe in $Fe/TiO_2$ nanocomposite powders is in the range of 30 nm. The change in magnetic properties also reflects the details of the solid-state reduction of magnetite by pure metals during MA.