Based on a critical analysis of the experimental coercive properties, general considerations on the reversal mechanisms in RFeB magnets are recalled. By plotting together the experimental parameters obtained in various magnets, common features of the reversal processes are demonstrated. Modeling provides an almost quantitative description of coercivity in these materials and permits connecting the defect characteristic properties to reversal mechanisms.
Cobalt carbide nanoparticles were processed using polyol reduction chemistry that offers high product yields in a cost effective single-step process. Particles are shown to be acicular in morphology and typically assembled as clusters with room temperature coercivities greater than 4 kOe and maximum energy products greater than 20 KJ/m3. Consisting of Co3C and Co2C phases, the ratio of phase volume, particle size, and particle morphology all play important roles in determining permanent magnet properties. Further, the acicular particle shape provides an enhancement to the coercivity via dipolar anisotropy energy as well as offering potential for particle alignment in nanocomposite cores. While Curie temperatures are near 510K at temperatures approaching 700 K the carbide powders experience an irreversible dissociation to metallic cobalt and carbon thus limiting operational temperatures to near room temperature.
The maximum coercivity that can be achieved for a given hard magnetic alloy is estimated by computing the energy barrier for the nucleation of a reversed domain in an idealized microstructure without any structural defects and without any soft magnetic secondary phases. For Sm$_{1-z}$Zr$_z$(Fe$_{1-y}$Co$_y$)$_{12-x}$Ti$_x$ based alloys, which are considered an alternative to Nd$_2$Fe$_{14}$B magnets with lower rare-earth content, the coercive field of a small magnetic cube is reduced to 60 percent of the anisotropy field at room temperature and to 50 percent of the anisotropy field at elevated temperature (473K). This decrease of the coercive field is caused by misorientation, demagnetizing fields and thermal fluctuations.
Magnetic coercivity is often viewed to be lower in alloys with negligible (or zero) values of the anisotropy constant. However, this explains little about the dramatic drop in coercivity in FeNi alloys at a non-zero anisotropy value. Here, we develop a theoretical and computational tool to investigate the fundamental interplay between material constants that govern coercivity in bulk magnetic alloys. The two distinguishing features of our coercivity tool are that: (a) we introduce a large localized disturbance, such as a spike-like magnetic domain, that provides a nucleation barrier for magnetization reversal; and (b) we account for magneto-elastic energy -- however small -- in addition to the anisotropy and magnetostatic energy terms. We apply this coercivity tool to show that the interactions between local instabilities and material constants, such as anisotropy and magnetostriction constants, are key factors that govern magnetic coercivity in bulk alloys. Using our model, we show that coercivity is minimum at the permalloy composition (Fe-21.5Ni-78.5) at which the alloys anisotropy constant is not zero. We systematically vary the values of the anisotropy and magnetostriction constants, around the permalloy composition, and identify new combinations of material constants at which coercivity is small. More broadly, our coercivity tool provides a theoretical framework to potentially discover novel magnetic materials with low coercivity.
We report on theoretical investigation of the magnetization reversal in two-dimensional arrays of ferromagnetic nano-particles with parameters of cobalt. The system was optimized for achieving the lowest coercivity in an array of particles located in the nodes of triangular, hexagonal and square grids. Based on the numerical solution of the non-stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation we show that each particle distribution type is characterized with a proper optimal distance, allowing to lower the coercivity values for approximately 30% compared with the reference value obtained for a single nano-particle. It was shown that the reduction of coercivity occurs even if the particle position in the array is not very precise. In particular, the triangular particle arrangement maintained the same optimal distance between the particles under up to 20% random displacements of their position within the array.
In this work we report a study of the magnetic behavior of ferrimagnetic oxide CoFe2O4 treated by mechanical milling with different grinding balls. The cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were prepared using a simple hydrothermal method and annealed at 500oC. The non-milled sample presented coercivity of about 1.9 kOe, saturation magnetization of 69.5 emu/g, and a remanence ratio of 0.42. After milling, two samples attained coercivity of 4.2 and 4.1 kOe, and saturation magnetization of 67.0 and 71.4 emu/g respectively. The remanence ratio MR/MS for these samples increase to 0.49 and 0.51, respectively. To investigate the influence of the microstructure on the magnetic behavior of these samples, we used X-ray powder diffraction (XPD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The XPD analysis by the Williamson-Hall plot was used to estimate the average crystallite size and strain induced by mechanical milling in the samples.