Novel hard magnetic phase with Zr11.5Fe53Si35.5 composition

We performed a material search experiment in the Zr-Fe-Si ternary system to discover a new rare-earth-free hard magnetic phase. We adopted a high-throughput approach that quickly screens multi phase alloys. Our experiment revealed a hard magnetic phase with Zr11.5Fe53Si35.5 composition. The prepared alloys containing the hard magnetic phase showed coercivity up to 338 kA/m at room temperature even without any microstructure refinement process. The Curie temperature T-c of the phase was found to be in the range of 240-260 degrees C. The saturated magnetization M-s and the magnetic anisotropy field H-a of the phase were estimated to be similar to 24 Am-2/kg and over 4775 kA/m, respectively, at room temperature. The electron diffraction patterns indicated that the phase has an orthorhombic crystal system in which the c-axis corresponds to the magnetic easy axis. This crystal structure is obviously different from the hexagonal structure previously reported in a similar composition of (Zr,Fe)(5)Si-3. From these results, we conclude that the phase with Zr11.5Fe53Si35.5 composition is a novel hard magnetic compound that has never before been reported. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Through a high-throughput experiment, a novel rare-earth-free hard magnetic phase with excellent magnetic properties was discovered in the Zr-Fe-Si ternary system, which has never been reported before.