Structural and magnetic properties of pulsed electrodeposited Fe-Ag alloy

Department of Nuclear Physics, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai-600 025, India

E-mail : stephen_arum@hotmail.com

Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai-600 025, India

Nanostructured alloy formed by magnetic and nonmagnetic components play a significant role in sensor applications due to their unique magnetic properties. An alloy of the thermally immiscible constituents iron and silver was deposited at three different current densities by pulsed electrodeposition method from a two electrode single bath system containing ferric nitrate, silver nitrate and sodium perchlorate. The surface morphology of the as deposited alloy was investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) analysis while the alloy structure was examined by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). XRD analysis showed that alloys exhibit fcc structure. FESEM analysis reveals that in the deposit, the spherical nanosized particles grow to form dendrites. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies indicate the presence of metallic silver and iron. Furthermore, the magnetic properties of samples were characterized on a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) which unveils that the Fe-Ag alloy deposits were ferromagnetic in nature.