Magnetic Properties and Microstructure of Ce-Cu-Al Low Melting Alloy Bonding Sm2Fe17N3 Magnet Fabricated by the Hot-Pressing Method

Abstract

Sm2Fe17N3 compounds, having excellent intrinsic magnetic properties, are prone to decomposition at high temperatures; thus, a low melting point metal binder is the key to prepare high performance bulk magnets at low temperatures. In this paper, a new low melting point alloy Ce72Cu28-xAlx was used as the binders, and high-performance Ce-based alloy bonding Sm2Fe17N3 magnets were realized by the hot-pressing method. The experimental results demonstrated that the content of Al in the Ce-based alloys had an important influence on the performance of the magnets. High performance Sm-Fe-N bonded magnets with remanence of 10.19 KGs and maximum magnetic energy product of 21.06 MGOe were achieved by using 5 wt.% Ce72Cu22Al6 alloy as a binder. At the same time, it was found that the Ce72Cu28-xAlx alloy has a lower density and better bonding effect than the common Zn binder. Its bonding magnets still have higher performance even with extremely high oxygen content. Therefore, Ce72Cu28-xAlx alloy with low melting point is a promising new rare earth-based alloy binder. If the oxygen content of the alloy powders could be reduced, higher performance Sm2Fe17N3 bonded magnets can be prepared.