Coercivity enhancement of sintered Nd–Fe–B magnets by grain boundary diffusion with Pr_(80-x)Al_(x)Cu_(20)alloys

A grain boundary diffusion(GBD)process with Pr_(80-x)Al_(x)Cu_(20)(x=0,10,15,20)low melting point alloys was applied to commercial 42M sintered Nd–Fe–B magnets.The best coercivity enhancement of a diffused magnet was for the Pr_(65)Al_(15)Cu_(20)GBD magnet,from 16.38 kOe to 22.38 kOe.Microstructural investigations indicated that increase in the Al content in the diffusion source can form a continuous grain boundary(GB)phase,optimizing the microstructure to enhance the coercivity.The coercivity enhancement is mainly due to the formation of a continuous GB phase to separate the main phase grains.Exchange decoupling between the adjacent main phase grains is enhanced after the GBD process.Meanwhile,the introduction of Al can effectively promote the infiltration of Pr into the magnet,which increases the diffusion rate of rare-earth elements within a certain range.This work provides a feasible method to enhance coercivity and reduce the use of rare-earth resources by partial replacement of rare-earth elements with non-rare-earth elements in the diffusion source.

Coercivity and microstructure of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets diffused with Pr-Co,Pr-Al,and Pr-Co-Al alloys

The commercial 42 M Nd-Fe-B magnet was treated by grain boundary diffusion(GBD)with Pr_(70)Co_(30)(PC),Pr_(70)Al_(30)(PA)and Pr_(70)Co_(15)Al_(15)(PCA)alloys,respectively.The mechanism of coercivity enhancement in the GBD magnets was investigated.The coercivity was enhanced from 1.63 T to 2.15 T in the PCA GBD magnet,higher than the 1.81 T of the PC GBD magnet and the 2.01 T of the PA GBD magnet.This indicates that the joint addition of Co and Al in the diffusion source can further improve the coercivity.Microstructural investigations show that the coercivity enhancement is mainly attributed to the exchange-decoupling of the GB phases.In the PCA GBD magnet,the wider thin GB phases can be formed and the thin GB phases can still be observed at the diffusion depth of 1500μm due to the combined action of Co and Al.At the same time,the formation of the Pr-rich shell can also be observed,which is helpful for the coercivity enhancement.

Effects of post-sinter annealing on microstructure and magnetic properties of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets with Nd–Ga intergranular addition

We investigate the effects of post-sinter annealing on the microstructure and magnetic properties in B-lean Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets with different quantities of Nd–Ga intergranular additions. The magnet with fewer Nd–Ga additions can enhance 0.2 T in coercivity, with its remanences nearly unchanged after annealing. With the further increase of the Nd–Ga addition, the annealing process leads coercivity to increase 0.4 T, accompanied by a slight decrease of remanence. With the Nd–Ga addition further increasing and after annealing, however, the increase of coercivity is basically constant and the change of remanence is reduced. Microstructure observation indicates that the matrix grains are covered by continuous thin grain boundary phase in the magnets with an appropriate Nd–Ga concentration after the annealing process. However, the exceeding Nd–Ga addition brings out notable segregation of grain boundary phase, and prior formation of part RE6 Fe13 Ga phase in the sintered magnet. This prior formation results in a weaker change of remanence after the annealing process.Therefore, the diverse changes of magnetic properties with different Nd–Ga concentrations are based on the respective evolution of grain boundary after the annealing process.