Project objectives

The project involves the synthesis and characterization of Fe (or Fe alloy)/Fe1-xMexFe2O4 (where Me is Ni or Zn and 0=x=1) nanocomposite powders, composite and nanocomposite compacts.
Thus, resulting two main objectives for the proposed project as follow:

OBJECTIVE 1, OB1 - Synthesis and characterization of Fe/Fe3O4 sintered composite compacts. This objective assumes the elaboration and study of Fe/Fe3O4 sintered composite compacts in toroidal shape via powder metallurgy route starting from mixtures of elemental iron and hematite (a-Fe2O3) in various mass ratios. The synthesis of this type of compacts involves the mechanosynthesis and classical sintering methods. The expected results are Fe/Fe3O4 composite magnetic cores with a magnetic permeability enhanced as compared to the one of iron ferrite and with an electrical resistivity much higher as compared to iron one. The compacts are expected to have a good behaviour at middle frequencies. This objective will be attained by two work packages. Each package is composed by different complementary tasks. The work packages are described in section C4.

OBJECTIVE 2, OB2 - Synthesis and characterization of Fe (or Fe alloy)/Fe1-xMexFe2O4 spark plasma sintered nanocomposite powders and compacts. This objective is divided into two subobjectives.
The first sub-objective, called SUB-OBJECTIVE 2.1, S-OB2.1, assumes the synthesis and study of Fe/Fe3O4 nanocomposite compacts starting from Fe/?-Fe2O3 nanocomposite powders. The second sub-objective, called SUB-OBJECTIVE 2.2, S-OB2.2, involves the synthesis and characterization of Fe (or Fe alloy)/ Fe1-xMexFe2O4 nanocomposite compacts starting from Fe (or Fe alloy)/Fe1-xMexFe2O4 nanocomposite powders. Each sub-objective has two work packages. The expected results are Fe (or Fe alloy)/Fe1-xMexFe2O4 nanocomposite magnetic cores with enhanced magnetic properties and higher electrical resistivity as compared to the ones of compacts obtained in OB1.