Magnetization study on grain-boundary precipitation in a Ni-8 at. % Sn alloy

The variations of the grain‐boundary precipitates, the electrical resistivity, and the magnetization of a Ni‐8 at. % Sn alloy have been investigated as functions of annealing temperature and annealing time. For samples annealed at 773 K, the averaged growth rate of the size of the grain‐boundary precipitates is roughly 0.42 μm/h for the first 24 h; the electrical resistivity at T=10 K and the magnetization at T=10 K and H=5 kG vary monotonically with respect to the annealing time for the first 2 weeks, changing from 22.5 to 7 μΩ cm for the electrical resistivity and from 27 to 33 emu/g for the magnetization. A large tail section in the magnetization versus temperature curve was also observed in the aged samples. All these electrical and magnetic variations in the Ni‐8 at. % Sn samples annealed at 773 K varied monotonically with respect to the growth of the grain‐boundary precipitates.