A study of thermal properties for Fe-Ni-P-B amorphous nanosize powders prepared by chemical reduction

Nanosize amorphous Fe-Ni-P-B powders have been first prepared successfully by reducing iron and nickel salts with NaH2PO2 and KBH4 in aqueous solution. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the powders were amorphous. Electron microscopy showed that the powders were nearly spherical with diameters in the range of 20 to 200 nm. The thermal properties of the amorphous powders were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was found that exothermic processes were different for powders with different concentrations. The first peak crystallization temperatures and crystallization heats were 622.8 to 708.5 K and 3.83 to 9.42 kJ/mol for the powders studied, respectively.