Evaluation of alloying effect on the formation of Ni-Fe nanosized powders by pulsed wire discharge

Abstract This study investigates the effects of varying the explosion time and charging voltage of pulsed wire discharge (PWD) on the mean particle size, dispersibility and alloying reliability of powders produced from pure Ni and Ni-plated Fe wires. It was found that with increasing charging voltage, the mean particle size of Ni powders is reduced from 40.11 ± 0.23 to 25.63 ± 0.07 nm, which is attributed to a change in the extent of super heating with particle size. Nanosized powders of Ni-Fe alloy with a mean particle size between 25.91 ± 0.24 and 26.30 ± 0.26 nm were also successfully fabricated and found to consist of particles with a γ-(Ni/Fe) core and FeO shell. The reliability for the optimization of processing parameters to control particle sizes is also evaluated.