Effect of quench rate on nanostructure and magnetic properties of PrCo₅

Authors

Wenyong Zhang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Xingzhong Li, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Shah R. Valloppilly, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Jeffrey E. Shield, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 115, 17A731 (2014)

Abstract

The effect of quench rate on nanostructure and magnetic properties of PrCo₅ alloy has been investigated. The increase of quench rate through wheel speed in melt spinning suppresses the formation of the secondary Pr₂Co₁₇ and Pr₅Co₁₉ phases with low magnetocrystalline anisotropy field and refines the nanostructure. This significantly improves the coercivity, remanence, and energy product. For example, increasing the wheel speed from 30 m/s to 70 m/s increases the coercivity and energy product from 3.2 kOe and 4.0 MGOe to 10.3 kOe and 13.7 MGOe, respectively. The magnetic hardening mechanism appears to be a mixture of reverseddomain- nucleation and domain-wall-pinning. The temperature coefficient of coercivity for the 70 m/s sample is -0.16%/K from 300 to 700 K, which is better than that of sintered SmCo5 magnets. Low temperature coefficients of coercivity and remanence indicate that rapidly quenched PrCo5 ribbons may be suitable for bonded magnets with high operation temperature.