Minor yttrium nitrate addition effect on FeSiCr alloy powder core electromagnetic properties

The yttrium nitrate effect on FeSiCr alloy insulating layer thickness and magnetic properties after annealing treatment is investigated in this study. The results showed that a continuous chromium oxide layer was observed on the FeSiCr alloy powder surface after annealing at 800 °C. The addition of a minor amount of yttrium nitrate can significantly slow the FeSiCr alloy powder oxidation rate. However, excessive yttrium nitrate addition accelerated the oxide layer growth. The FeSiCr alloy sample magnetic properties depend strongly on the chromium oxide layer thickness. The saturation magnetization and initial permeability increased with increasing yttrium nitrate and reached the maximum at 0.02 wt% and then decreased as the addition amount was increased to 0.5 wt%. The addition of 0.02 wt% yttrium nitrate into FeSiCr alloy powder can effectively improve the saturation magnetization, initial permeability, quality factor and magnetic loss, which provides a promising candidate for power chip inductor applications.