Effect of particle size and lattice strain on Debye-Waller factors of Fe3C nanoparticles

Abstract

Fe3C nanoparticle powders have been prepared by a high energized ball mill. The resulting nanoparticle powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements. The high-energy ball milling of Fe3C after 10 h resulted in crystalline size of about 5 nm. The Debye temperature, mean-square amplitudes of vibration, Debye-Waller factor, lattice parameters, particle size, lattice strain and vacancy formation of energies of Fe3C nanoparticles prepared by ball mill have been obtained from X-ray integrated intensities. The integrated intensities have been measured with a Philips CWU 3710 X-ray powder diffractometer fitted with a scintillation counter using filtered CuKα radiation at room temperature and have been corrected for thermal diffuse scattering. The X-ray Debye temperatures obtained in the present investigation has been used to estimate the vacancy formation energies for Fe3C nanoparticles.