Revisiting the pinning sites in 2:17-type Sm-Co-Fe-Cu-Zr permanent magnets

It is still an open debate whether the 1:5H cell boundaries (CBs) or the intersections of 1:3R platelets and 1:5H CBs are the strong pining sites for the cellular nanostructured 2:17-type Sm-Co-Fe-Cu-Zr high temperature permanent magnets despite that they have been widely applied in advanced industries since 1970s. Herein, through tuning the volume fraction of Zr-enriched 1:3R platelets by varying the second-step aging time, the pinning behavior in a model magnet Sm25Co44.9Fe21.5Cu5.6Zr3.0 (wt%) was investigated. The results show that the volume fraction of 1:3R platelets can be effectively enlarged without changing the cell size (i.e. the volume fraction of CBs) by extending the aging time at 400 degrees C. Microscopic TEM characterizations combined with macroscopic magnetic measurements reveals that the locally thickened 1:3R platelets after long-term second-step aging reduce the effective pinning area by interrupting the magnetic domain walls at CBs, weakening the average pinning strength and the coercivity of the magnet. Consequently, our work supports that the 1:5H CBs act as the dominating pinning sites instead of the intersections of 1:3R platelets and 1:5H CBs, which may provide an important insight towards understanding the hard magnetism of pinning-controlled permanent magnets. (C) 2021 Chinese Society of Rare Earths. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study shows that tuning the second-step aging time can effectively enlarge the volume fraction of Zr-enriched 1:3R platelets without changing the volume fraction of CBs, which helps to provide important insights into understanding the hard magnetism of pinning-controlled permanent magnets.