Thermal treatment of iron-copper metastable alloys

Mechanical alloying is a versatile technique for the solid state synthesis of many materials, including alloys such as iron-copper where the elements are immiscible under equilibrium conditions. The structural and magnetic state of these alloys, and their thermal stability, have been investigated by means of thermomagnetometry, DSC, X-ray diffraction and Mossbauer spectroscopy, Comparison of the thermomagnetometry curves for the various alloys together with analysis of intermediate reaction products enabled the individual thermal processes to be identified. The Curie temperature of the alloys was measured, and it was found that on heating the metastable alloys underwent phase segregation between 300-400 degrees C.