Preparation of Scandium-Doped, Textured, M-Type Barium Ferrite via a Wet Magnetizing Orientation Process

In this paper, a wet magnetizing orientation process was applied to synthesize c-axis-textured, M-type barium ferrite (BaFe12O19 or BaM), which is widely used to produce hard magnetic materials. To modify the magnetic properties of the BaM ferrite and make it suitable for certain operating frequencies, Sc3+ was substituted into Fe3+ sites of the BaM crystal structure. A BaScxFe12-xO19 ferrite with a typical relative density of similar to 75% was successfully obtained. We used x-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy, and a vibrating sample magnetometer to obtain phase information, detail of the microstructure, and magnetic properties of the BaScxFe12-xO19, respectively. The composition BaScxFe12-xO19 (x = 0.1) featured a superior squareness ratio of similar to 67% and a saturation magnetization (MS) of similar to 5300 Gauss in magnetic hysteresis loop measurements. These features match well with requirements for self-biased passive devices. Moreover, the site preference of Sc3+ in the hexagonal crystal structure was investigated.