Tuning the hard magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Ce-Fe-B alloys by Ho substitution

作者：Li, Songmao; Zhou, Bang; Liao, Xuefeng; Liu, Zhongwu^*

来源：Materials Letters, 2022, 323: 132569.

DOI：10.1016/j.matlet.2022.132569

• Ce-Fe-B alloys
• Ho substitution
• Nanocrystalline materials
• Phase structure
• Magnetic materials

To improve the performance of Ce-based magnets and take full advantages of heavy rare earth (RE) element of Holmium, Ce-Fe-B alloys with different Ho substitutions were prepared by melt spinning. Their phase constitution and magnetic properties have been systematically studied. Ho can enter into the main phase to form (Ce, Ho)(2)Fe14B phase, and the introduction of Ho can suppress the formation of CeFe2 phase in the (Ce1-xHox)(14)Fe80B6 alloys. Partial Ho substitution can tune the magnetic properties of RE-rich (Ce1-xHox)(14)Fe(80)B(6 )alloys and single-phase (Ce1-xHox)(12)Fe82B6 alloys. For RE-rich (Ce1-xHox)(14)Fe80B6 alloys, the intrinsic coercivity H-cj, Curie temperature T-c and thermal stability are greatly improved by Ho substitution. H-cj reaches a high value of 1317.7 kA/m at x = 0.5. For single phase alloy, (BH)(max) greatly increases from 18.7 kJ/m(3) to 56.1 kJ/m(3) when x increases from 0 to 0.3. The microstructure observation of (Ce0.7Ho0.3)(14)Fe80B6 alloy indicates the formation of (Ce, Ho)(2)Fe14B and RE-rich phases, and Ho prefers to enter 2:14:1 phase than Ce. This work suggests the possibility of developing cost-effective permanent magnets based on Ce and Ho elements.