Mössbauer studies of CuFe-72% alloy

Abstract

Cu-Fe alloy with 72 at % of iron in powder form is prepared using simultaneous electrodeposition from a common electrolytic bath. Mössbauer spectra of the as-prepared sample show a superposition of quadrupole doublet with a large line broadening and a small component of a six line Mössbauer spectrum which has been characterized to be pure iron phase. As the samples are annealed, more and more segregation of magnetic part takes place. The linewidth and the quadrupole splitting of the residual doublet change in a correlated fashion and go through a maximum at 300ºC. The crucial factor responsible for line broadening seems to be defect distribution and oxygen/hydrogen incorporation during electrodeposition and alloying. The phase-segregated iron on heating is in oxidized form (hematite and magnetite) most probably due to reaction with oxygen incorporated at the time of deposition.