Fe-Co-B amorphous alloy powder by chemical reduction

Fine boride powders, prepared by reactions between sodium or potassium borohydride and aqueous (or alcoholic) solutions of transition metal salts have long been known to be good catalysts for hydrogenation reactions. New interest around them has recently grown, because they were found to exhibit amorphous structure. Classical chemical reactions may thus offer a simple route to prepare amorphous metal powders, paralleling more sophisticated methods so far used to reach the same goal. To explore the potential of these reactions, we considered the system Fe-Co-B with the aim of examining the characteristics of the product obtained in the easiest way and without any particular precautions. The structure of the amorphous alloy appears to be different from that of materials with a similar Me/B ratio prepared via melt spinning.