Producing Soft Magnetic Composites by Spark Plasma Sintering of Pseudo Core-Shell Ni-Fe Alloy@Mn_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄ Powders

Soft magnetic composite (SMC) cores have been obtained by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) using pseudo core-shell powders. Pseudo core-shell powders are formed by a core of soft magnetic particle (nanocrystalline permalloy or supermalloy) surrounded by a thin layer (shell) of nanosized soft ferrite (Mn_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄). Three compositions of pseudo core-shell powders were prepared, with 1, 2 and 3 wt.% of manganese-zinc mixt ferrite. The pseudo core-shell powders were compacted by SPS at temperatures between 500 and 700 °C, with a holding time ranging from 0 to 10 min. Several techniques have been used for characterization of the samples, both, powders and compacts X-ray diffraction (XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), magnetic hysteresis measurements (DC and AC) and electrical resistivity. The electrical resistivity is in the order of 1 × 10^-2 Ωm, 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than supermalloy electrical resistivity. The SPS at lower temperatures (500 °C) conserves the initial phases of the composite, but increasing the sintering temperature and/or sintering time produces a solid-state reaction between the alloy and ferrite phases, with negative consequence on the magnetic properties of the compacts. The initial relative permeability is around 40 and remains constant until to 2000 Hz. The power losses are lower than 2 W/kg until to 2000 Hz.