Effect of Ti and C additions on structural and magnetic properties of (Pr,Nd)-Fe-B nanocrystalline magnetic materials

Effects of titanium carbide (TiC) addition on structural and magnetic properties of isotropic (Pr,Nd)-Fe-B nanocrystalline magnetic materials have been investigated. In this work, we investigate the effect of TiC addition on a (Pr,Nd)-poor and B-rich composition, as well as on a B-poor and (Nd,Pr)-rich composition. Rapidly solidified (Pr,Nd)-Fe-B alloys were prepared by melt-spinning. The compositions studied were (Pr1−xNdx)4Fe78B18 (x=0, 0.5, and 1) with addition of 3 at% TiC. Unlike the (PrxNd1−x)9.5Fe84.5B6 materials that present excellent values for coercive field and energy product, the (Pr,Nd)-poor and B-rich composition alloys with TiC addition present lower values. Rietveld analysis of X-ray data and Mössbauer spectroscopy revealed that samples are predominantly composed of Fe3B and α-Fe. For the RE-rich compositions (PrxNd1−x)9.5Fe84.5B6 (x=0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1) with the addition of 3 at% TiC, the highest coercive field and energy product (8.4 kOe and 14.4 MGOe, respectively) were obtained for the composition Pr9.5Fe84.5B6.