Evaluation of alloying effect on the formation of Ni-Fe nanosized powders by pulsed wire discharge

•Synthesizing Ni-Fe alloy nano-powder employing Ni-plating layer of Fe wire by PWD process.•The mean particle size is decreased with increasing the charging voltage affecting to the super heating factor (K).•The mean particle size of PWD Ni-Fe nanosized powder is accordance with applied voltage.•Uniformity of mean particel size can be controlled by adjusting charging voltage and super heating factor (K). This study investigates the effects of varying the explosion time and charging voltage of pulsed wire discharge (PWD) on the mean particle size, dispersibility and alloying reliability of powders produced from pure Ni and Ni-plated Fe wires. It was found that with increasing charging voltage, the mean particle size of Ni powders is reduced from 40.11±0.23 to 25.63±0.07nm, which is attributed to a change in the extent of super heating with particle size. Nanosized powders of Ni-Fe alloy with a mean particle size between 25.91±0.24 and 26.30±0.26nm were also successfully fabricated and found to consist of particles with a γ-(Ni/Fe) core and FeO shell. The reliability for the optimization of processing parameters to control particle sizes is also evaluated.