Thermal analysis of two Fe-X-B (X=Nb, ZrNi) alloys prepared by mechanical alloying

The alloys, Fe60Ni14Zr6B20 and Fe85Nb9B6, were produced by mechanical alloying. The formation of the nanocrystallites (about 40 nm) was detected by X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, a slight oxygen presence (<3 at.%) was found by induced-coupled plasma and EDX microanalysis. After milling, calorimetry scans show low temperature recovery process and several crystallization processes related with the crystal growth and reordering of the crystalline phases. The apparent activation energies, 360 and 290 kJ mol-1, were determined by the Kissinger method. A mass increase (about 1 mass%) was detected by thermogravimetry.