Effect of the milling media on the phases obtained in mechanically alloyed equiatomic Fe-Co

In the present work the effect of the milling media on the phases obtained in the Fe-Co equiatomic mixture of mechanical alloyed elemental powders is studied. The Fe-Co powders were milled in a high energy mill for different periods of time, employing two different set of milling tools, WC and steel. The evolution of the phases Formed, for the different stages of milling, was followed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Mossbauer spectroscopy. A remarkable difference between both milling media was found, with respect to phases formed and homogeneity of the samples with milling time. Contamination is observed in both cases, which seems to affect the phases formed. For long milling periods (49 h) nanophase particles with mean particle size of 6 nm were obtained.