Anisotropic PrCo$_{5}$ Nanoparticles by Surfactant-Assisted Ball Milling

Abstract

Magnetically hard PrCo <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5</sub> nanoparticles have been produced by using surfactant-assisted high-energy ball milling techniques. The use of surfactant leads to the dispersion of the crashed particles and prevents them from rewelding during the milling process. Heptane was used as the milling medium, and oleic acid as the surfactant. High-energy ball milling experiments took place in a milling vial with steel balls by using a Spex 8000 M high-energy ball milling machine. The coercivity was found to increase with milling time with a value of 6.8 kOe after 12 h of milling. TEM data showed that the milled powders consist of nanoparticles with an average size of 8-10 nm.