Novel Nanostructured Rare-Earth-Free Magnetic Materials with High Energy Products

Authors

Balamurugan Balasubramanian, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
Bhaskar Das, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Wenyong Zhang, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2013

Citation

Advanced Materials 25 (2013)

Abstract

The development of new iron- or cobalt-rich permanent-magnet materials is of paramount importance in materials science and technology since high-performance materials based on Nd₂Fe₁₄B or FePt are extremely expensive or subject to limited rare-earth supplies.^[1–4] Aside from phase-diagram considerations, this requires alloys with high magnetocrystal-line anisotropy K1 and Curie temperature Tc. However, the range of alternative compounds with appreciable K1 and high Tc is limited, and the situation is often aggravated by their metastable nature and by the requirement of high-formation temperatures.^[5–12] For exam-ple, two suitable candidates are Zr₂Co₁₁ and HfCo₇, both crystallizing in noncubic struc-tures, as necessary for high K1. However, the poor control over phase purity in traditionally prepared bulk alloys has an adverse effect on permanent magnetic properties.^[7,8,11,12] The future development requires high-performance magnetic materials for applications rang-ing from home appliances to sophisticated microelectronics and environment-friendly technologies, such as hybrid vehicles and wind turbines.^[1–4]