New anisotropic MnBi permanent magnets by field-annealing of compacted melt-spun alloys modified with Mg and Sb

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A method has been developed for manufacturing rare-earth-free MnBi-based magnets capable of filling the existing “gap” between the ferrite and rare-earth permanent magnets. Whereas the earlier approaches relied on sintering of fine and easily degrading single-crystal MnBi particles, the new method achieves refinement of the key α-MnBi phase through melt-spinning combined with appropriate alloying. Modification of the MnBi alloys with Mg and Sb generates a high-coercivity nanostructure of the metastable β' phase. A subsequent compaction at 150 °C produces fully dense materials while converting the β' phase into the stable α phase. Finally, a short annealing at 265–300 °C in a magnetic field of 3 T increases the fraction of the α phase to 97–98% and aligns the c axes of the α crystallites. A maximum energy product (BH)max of 11.5 MGOe and an intrinsic coercivity Hc of 5.6 kOe have been obtained in a magnet with the nominal composition Mn50Bi46.5Mg3Sb0.5. Because the coercivity increases with temperature, the maximum energy product of this magnet is still as high as 8.9 MGOe at 175 °C. Increasing the Sb content to 1.5 at.% increases the Hc to 9.3 kOe, but at the same time inhibits the development of the texture thus decreasing the (BH)max. The addition of Mg was found to increase the c lattice parameter of the α phase resulting in an unusually large ratio c/a ≈ 1.432.