Hard-phase engineering in hard/soft nanocomposite magnets

Abstract

Bulk SmCo/Fe(Co) based hard/soft nanocomposite magnets with different hard phases (1:5, 2:17, 2:7 and 1:3 types) were fabricated by high-energy ball-milling followed by a warm compaction process. Microstructural studies revealed a homogeneous distribution of bcc-Fe(Co) phase in the matrix of hard magnetic Sm-Co phase with grain size ⩽20 nm after severe plastic deformation and compaction. The small grain size leads to effective inter-phase exchange coupling as shown by the single-phase-like demagnetization behavior with enhanced remanence and energy product. Among the different hard phases investigated, it was found that the Sm2Co7-based nanocomposites can incorporate a higher soft phase content, and thus a larger reduction in rare-earth content compared with the 2:17, 1:5 and 1:3 phase-based nanocomposite with similar properties. (BH)max up to 17.6 MGOe was obtained for isotropic Sm2Co7/FeCo nanocomposite magnets with 40 wt% of the soft phase which is about 300% higher than the single-phase counterpart prepared under the same conditions. The results show that hard-phase engineering in nanocomposite magnets is an alternative approach to fabrication of high-strength nanocomposite magnets with reduced rare-earth content.