Cobalt-Iron Nitride Nano-Flake Powders: Synthesis, Analysis Morphological, Structural, Magnetic and Catalytic Activity

A detailed investigation is presented for the solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis of cobalt-iron nitride nano-flake powders from Fe and Co crystals by high-energy ball milling. To the best of our knowledge, this mechanochemical approach for synthesizing Co-Fe-N from Fe-Co is completely novel. Furthermore, only a few works have ever explored the physic and chemistry properties from Co-Fe-N. The milling process of Co-Fe was done in ambient conditions with a 1:40 powder/ball mass ratio, and it produced uniform Co-Fe-N nano-flake with sizes of 10–200 nm, based on the milling duration. Using these parameters, two different samples were synthesized. The first sample utilized gaseous nitrogen as the nitrogen source (A2), and the second sample employed urea as the nitrogen precursor (A3). The process was carefully monitored and the effect of the milling duration on the powder composition, particle size and aggregate size, magnetic properties, and material activity was examined using XRD, EDS, Raman, TEM, MEV, VSM, and LSV. The mechanism for the transformation of Co-Fe to Co-Fe-N was studied by XPS analysis. The catalyst produced from sample A3 exhibited superior catalytic performance for LSV with an overpotential of -1.12 V at a current density of -1.7 rnA em>, On the other hand, the catalyst derived from sample A2 demonstrated better stability during the catalytic activity test. Co-Fe-N crystals are very easy to obtain, and the milling process is carried out under ambient conditions. Therefore, this work provides a simple, cost-effective, and solvent-free method to produce Co-Fe-N nano-flakes with ferromagnetic behavior and catalytic activity for H
2
production.