Phase Structure and Magnetic Properties of Fe-Nb-B-Nd Type of Bulk Nanocrystalline Alloys

Abstract

In this work we present phase structure and magnetic properties of the (Fe80Nb6B14)1-x Ndx (x=0.08, 0.12, 0.16) bulk nanocrystalline alloys prepared by making use of mould casting technique. The applied mould allows obtaining bulk rods of 1.5 mm in diameter and about 3 cm in length. Phase structure and magnetic properties were carefully examined. It was shown that the applied preparation technique is favorable to nanocrystallization of the alloys, which was confirmed by the XRD diffraction. For all studied alloys, one can observe a formation of mainly Nd2Fe14B (hard magnetic) and Fe phases with different contributions dependently on the x parameter. It was also shown that the alloy of (Fe80Nb6B14)0.92Nd0.08 has the best hard magnetic properties with the coercive field, magnetic saturation and maximum energy product equal to 0.2 T, 117 emu/g and 13.4 kJ/m3, respectively (at room temperature). Moreover, the coercive field and maximum energy product are gradually deteriorating with increasing of rare earth addition.