Synthesis of nanocrystalline Ce13Fe81B6 alloy through mechanically driven disproportionation-recombination process

Nanocrystalline Ce13Fe81B6 alloy powder was synthesized by mechanically driven disproportionation-recombination processing. The microstructure transformation of the alloy during different processing stages was characterized by XRD and TEM. The magnetic properties of the nanocrystalline powder were measured by VSM. The results showed that the Ce2Fe14B matrix phase of the Ce13Fe81B6 alloy was disproportionated into the nanostructured CeH2.51, α-Fe, and Fe2B phases by ball milling in hydrogen for 20 h, and that these nanostructured phases could be desorbed and recombined to nanocrystalline Ce2Fe14B phase again by subsequent vacuum annealing, with the remanence, coercivity, and maximum energy product of the as-synthesized alloy powders achieving 8.1 kGs, 6.02 kOe, and 8.51 MGOe, respectively.