Fabrication and Spark Plasma Sintering of Magnetic alpha-Fe/MgO Nanocomposite by Mechanical Alloying

Solid-state reduction has occurred during mechanical alloying of a mixture of Fe2O3 and Mg powders at room temperature. It is found that magnetic nanocomposite in which MgO is dispersed in alpha-Fe matrix with nano-sized grains is obtained by mechanical alloying of Fe2O3 with Mg for 30 min. Consolidation of the ball-milled powders was performed in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) machine up to 800-1000 degrees C. X-ray diffraction result shows that the average grain size of alpha-Fe in a-Fe/MgO nanocomposite sintered at 800 degrees C is in the range of 110 nm. It can be also seen that the coercivity of SPS sample sintered at 800 degrees C is still high value of 88 Oe, suggesting that the grain growth of magnetic alpha-Fe phase during SPS process tends to be suppressed.