Combined experimental and DFT studies of Co82Zr12V6-xBx melt-spun ribbons to investigate structure and magnetic properties

Abstract

For the development of rare-earth free permanent magnets with better performance to cost ratio, V and B dopings were employed to enhance the hard magnetic properties of Zr-Co-V-B alloys. The effect of V and B microalloying additions on the magnetic properties, phase stability and microstructure of the metastable Co5Zr phase have been investigated with experimental measurements together with first principles based on the DFT (Density Functional Theory) calculations. This study also investigates the effects of annealing at different temperatures on the intrinsic and extrinsic magnetic properties of Co82Zr12V6-xBx melt-spun ribbons. Rapidly solidified Co82Zr12V6-xBx (x = 1, 2, 3) alloy ribbons were produced by melt-spinning. For as-spun Co82Zr12V6-xBx (x = 1, 2, 3) ribbons, the coercivityHcdecreases from 2.34 kOe to 0.008 kOe with an increasing × value from 1 to 3.The amorphous alloy ribbons were annealed in a vacuum furnace at a series of temperatures of 600 °C, 650 °C, 700 °C and 750 °C each for 30 min. The XRD analysis showed the presence of two soft magnetic phases (fcc-Co and Co23Zr6), accompanied with a hard phase Co5Zr in ribbons thus leading to the desired hard/soft structure and the amount of both (hard and soft) phases increased with the annealing temperature. Coercivity was found to increase upon annealing treatment. The phase stabilities of the Co82Zr12V6-xBx ribbons were calculated from the total energy by the DFT calculations in this work. The calculated magnetic anisotropy energies have been compared to that of experimental coercivity values. Annealed sample Co82Zr12V5B1 showed the maximum coercivity value of 3.58 kOe due to the formation of a high volume fraction of hard magnetic phase (Co5Zr) and evenly distributed finer grains throughout the matrix. However, annealing under the same conditions resulted in lower coercivity of about 0.088 kOe and 1.61 kOe for Co82Zr12V3B3 and Co82Zr12V4B2 samples, respectively. Although sample Co82Zr12V4B2 exhibited higher remanence (42.80 emu/g) and maximum magnetization value with the applied field of 17 kOe (i.e. M17 = 77.70 emu/g) compared to Co82Zr12V3B3 sample.