Combined effects of additive elements on the magnetic properties of Fe-Nd-B sintered magnets

Combined effects of additional elements on the magnetic properties of sintered Fe-Nd-B magnets were studied for two systems: containing both Al or Co and Al and Mo, respectively. It was found that the magnets containing Al and Co exhibit substantially higher coercivities than those with additions of only Al or Co. The improved coercivity for the alloys containing Al and Co, when compared with the quaternary alloys, we attribute to a reduced proportion of the soft magnetic inclusions in the grain boundary area. The investigation of combined effects of Al and Mo additions on the magnetic properties revealed that although both Al and Mo when added separately enhance the properties, their combined effect brought about deterioration of the coercivity. X-ray microanalysis detected Mo, Fe, Nd and Al rich inclusions, existence of which was considered to be the reason for a poor magnetic decoupling of the hard magnetic grains and drop of the coercivity. The magnetic properties were discussed in the light of phase constitution and their possible influence on the magnetisation reversal. Three dimensional diagrams of the magnetic properties versus composition were composed.