For the clean energy industry, permanent magnets are essential. They are used in devices like electric vehicles, wind turbines and advanced batteries among many other green high-tech applications. The magnetic materials that meet the required technical specifications are based on Nd2Fe14B, but the market factors of cost and its low Curie temperature (Tc = 585 K) limit its use, which dictates alternatives must be developed. As an alternative to neodymium-based magnets, SmCo magnets have recently regained importance due to its large coercivity and high Curie temperature (Tc = 1020K). The purpose of the project is to prepare nano-scale magnets based on samarium cobalt. However, SmCo modest saturation magnetization shows a problem that still needs to be overcome. A possible method is to fabricate exchange-coupled nanocomposites. To improve their energy product, nanocomposites which combine different ratios of hard phase (SmCo5 ) and soft phase (Fe) magnets together were synthesized and studied. In the process, the size of soft phase alpha iron is precisely controlled by thermal decomposition. And then the iron and SmCo are annealed together to form nanocomposite. The result shows SmCo5 + 10%Fe has the largest maximum energy product with both a large coercivity and a high moment.

Synthesis and characterization of magnetic nanocomposites for energy storage applications

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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