Influence of oxide additions in Cu-Co-Fe composite powders obtained by mechanical alloying

Nanocrystalline composite powders were prepared by mechanical alloying of pure Cu, Fe and Co as metallic major part and Al2O3 or Fe2O3 or SiO2 as ceramic reinforcement in a highenergy ball mill. Alloys of the copper-iron-cobalt system are promising for the development of new materials and applications. Cu-Fe-Co is used in different applications depending on the properties required. These can be related for example to toughness when used as rock cutting tool, to magnetic and electric properties for microelectronics or to chemical behaviour when used as catalysts in bioalcohol production industry. The objective of the present study is to contribute to understanding how and to which amount the ceramic reinforcement affects the properties for which this Cu-Fe-Co system is used as well as to envisage other less frequently uses for the composite powders. Structural and magnetic transformations occurring in the material during milling were studied with the use of X-ray diffraction, scanning quantum induction device (SQUID) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM). In mechanical alloying the transformations depend upon milling time. The results showed that milling the elemental powders of Cu-Fe-Co in the mass proportion of 50:25:25 respectively for times up to 10h leads to the progressive dissolution of Fe and Co atoms into FCC Cu and the final product of the MA process was the nanocrystalline Cu containing Fe and Co with a mean crystallite size (from coherent crystal size determination by diffraction) of 20 nm aprox. When ceramic particles are milled together with the metals (at proportions of the oxides between 1- 10%) this mechanism is retarded. On the other hand, the lowest mean crystallite size is reached without ceramic particles in the milling process. However the composite powder produced in all the cases stabilized similar lowest crystallite size between 45-50 nm. Mechanically alloyed metallicceramic composite powder showed lower saturation magnetization than the metallic system but enhanced coercive field (significantly for hematite reinforcement). All the studied systems are intermediate ferromagnetics (Hc≈104 A/m). Milling time significantly affects the structure, composition and properties for both metallic and composite systems