Affiliation:
1. Department of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Chiba Institute of Technology, Narashino 275-8588, Japan
Abstract
Sm2Fe17N3 powder exhibits excellent magnetic properties but is unstable and decomposes into α-Fe and SmN phases at high temperatures. Therefore, the key to producing Sm2Fe17N3 bulk magnets is to reduce the deterioration of Sm2Fe17N3 powder during sintering. Herein, Sm2Fe17N3 bulk magnets were made using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method with the addition of zinc stearate powder and zinc powder. Adding small amounts of zinc stearate powder and zinc powder improved the magnetic anisotropy and the coercivity of the magnets, respectively. The magnets produced by the SPS method using zinc stearate powder and zinc powder exhibited enhanced magnetic properties almost comparable to those of Sm2Fe17N3 powder.