Van Vuong Nguyen

Anisotropic bonded magnets fabricated via surfactant-assisted ball milling and magnetic-field processing

Anisotropic bonded magnets are fabricated by surfactant-assisted ball milling in a magnetic field and magnetic field alignment of the milled chip-like nanoparticles of the Sm–Co and Nd–Fe–B materials. It is found that the application of magnetic fields during the ball milling strengthens the anisotropy of the chips and therefore improves the alignment. For SmCo5 phase-based chips, for instance, energy products up to 26.0 MG Oe and 19.1 MG Oe are obtained for the chips and the bonded magnets, respectively. This combined technique opens a new approach to the fabrication of anisotropic bonded magnets for various applications.

Anisotropic nanostructured magnets by magnetic-field-assisted processing

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11TH JOINT MMM-INTERMAG CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON, DC, 2010 / Hard Magnetic Materials

Processing of MnBi bulk magnets with enhanced energy product

We report magnetic properties and microstructure of high energy-product MnBi bulk magnets fabricated by low-temperature ball-milling and warm compaction technique. A maximum energy product (BH)max of 8.4 MGOe and a coercivity of 6.2 kOe were obtained in the bulk MnBi magnet at room temperature. Magnetic characterization at elevated temperatures showed an increase in coercivity to 16.2 kOe while (BH)max value decreased to 6.8 MGOe at 400 K. Microstructure characterization revealed that the bulk magnets consist of oriented uniform nanoscale grains with average size about 50 nm.

Novel processing of high-performance MnBi magnets

Rare-earth-free MnBi magnets have attracted much attention recently due to their positive temperature coefficient of coercivity. In this work, the preparation, microstructure and magnetic properties of bulk MnBi magnets have been investigated. A low-temperature (−120 °C), low-energy ball-milling (LTLEBM) process has been adopted in the initial MnBi powder preparation that reduces the particle size to 1–5 μm from the 35–75 μm size of raw material powders of the MnBi low-temperature phase (LTP) (~97 wt%) made by melting and annealing. The LTLEBM process has significantly suspended the decomposition of the LTP MnBi that occurs excessively during ordinary room-temperature ball milling. After the LTLEBM, the coercivity iHc of the MnBi powder was increased from 1 kOe to 12 kOe while the LTP content in the powder was retained as high as 95 wt%. The as-milled powders were then aligned in an 18 kOe field and warm-compacted into a dense bulk magnet at 300 °C for 10 min to reach a mass density of ~8.4 g cm−3. The bulk magnets have a maximum energy product of 7.8 MGOe and coercivity of 6.5 kOe at room temperature. When the temperature is increased to 475 K, the coercivity is increased to 23 kOe.

Hard-phase engineering in hard/soft nanocomposite magnets

Bulk SmCo/Fe(Co) based hard/soft nanocomposite magnets with different hard phases (1:5, 2:17, 2:7 and 1:3 types) were fabricated by high-energy ball-milling followed by a warm compaction process. Microstructural studies revealed a homogeneous distribution of bcc-Fe(Co) phase in the matrix of hard magnetic Sm-Co phase with grain size ⩽20 nm after severe plastic deformation and compaction. The small grain size leads to effective inter-phase exchange coupling as shown by the single-phase-like demagnetization behavior with enhanced remanence and energy product. Among the different hard phases investigated, it was found that the Sm2Co7-based nanocomposites can incorporate a higher soft phase content, and thus a larger reduction in rare-earth content compared with the 2:17, 1:5 and 1:3 phase-based nanocomposite with similar properties. (BH)max up to 17.6 MGOe was obtained for isotropic Sm2Co7/FeCo nanocomposite magnets with 40 wt% of the soft phase which is about 300% higher than the single-phase counterpart prepared under the same conditions. The results show that hard-phase engineering in nanocomposite magnets is an alternative approach to fabrication of high-strength nanocomposite magnets with reduced rare-earth content.

High-Performance MnBi Alloy Prepared Using Profiled Heat Treatment

The profiled heat treatment (PHT) method has been used to synthesize MnBi alloys with high-purity low-temperature phase (LTP). In the PHT method, the arc-melted MnBi alloy was remelted then slowly cooled by a pseudo-equilibrium solidification process to promote the formation of LTP phase. The PHT-treated MnBi alloys had an LTP phase up to 94 wt.% and a magnetization of 73 emu/g under a field of 9 T. Scanning electron microscopy showed that there exist some micrometer-sized Mn-rich inclusions in the LTP matrix of the PHT MnBi alloy. The PHT MnBi alloys were crushed into powders with an average size of ~3 μm by low-energy ball milling. These MnBi powders were aligned in an 18 kOe field and warm compacted into a bulk magnet at 300 °C for 30 min. The magnet had a density of 8.2 g/cm3 and magnetic properties of Ms = 6.7 kG, Mr = 5.3 kGs, i Hc = 5 kOe, and (BH)max = 6.1 MGOe.

The Effect of External Magnetic Field on Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Melt-Spun Nd-Fe-B/Fe-Co Nanocomposite Ribbons

The ribbons Nd2Fe14B/Fe-Co were prepared with the nominal composition Nd16Fe76B8/40% wt. Fe65Co35 by the conventional and the developed magnetic field-assisted melt-spinning (MFMS) techniques. Both ribbons are nanocomposites with the smooth single-phase-like magnetization loops. The 0.32 T magnetic field perpendicular to the wheel surface and assisting the melt-spinning process reduces the grain size inside the ribbon, increases the texture of the ribbon, improves the exchange coupling, and, in sequence, increases the energy product of the isotropic powdered samples of MFMS ribbon in ~9% by comparison with that of the ribbon melt-spun conventionally. The grain size reduction effect caused by the assisted magnetic field has also been described quantitatively. The MFMS technique seems to be promising for producing high-performance nanocomposite ribbons.