A comparative study of Arc melted and ball milled FeAl alloys

In the present paper the authors have prepared technologically important Fe0.5Al0.5 alloys using two different routes (a) Arc melting and (b) Ball milling and compared their structural and magnetic properties by characterizing them through XRD and VSM. In both the cases, structural studies display FeAl alloy phase formation, irrespective of synthesis process. Although with both the routes FeAl alloy is formed but diffraction patterns are remarkably different. In ball milled sample the peaks are much broader as compared to sample prepared by arc melting. This is mainly because of the formation of nanostructured disordered FeAl alloy in the sample prepared by ball milling meth-od. Apart from this the presence of Aluminium peak in case of sample prepared through Arc melting indicates the uneven distribution of Al into Iron matrix whereas, in Ball Milled sample, complete dissolution of Al into Fe lattice is observed. Arc melted method largely favours nonmagnetic FeAl al-loy phase whereas ball milled method favours low magnetic FeAl alloy phase as inferred from mag-netic measurements. The presence of low magnetism in balled milled sample is interpreted in terms of nanocrystallization and the degree of disorder in the system.