Influence of zirconium addition on microstructure, magnetic properties and thermal stability of nanocrystalline Nd12.3Fe81.7B6.0 alloy

Effect of Zr addition on microstructure, magnetic properties and thermal stability of Nd12.3Fe81.7-xZrxB6.0 (x=0-3.0) ribbons melt-spun and annealed was investigated. Magnetic measurement using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) revealed that Zr addition was significantly effective in improving the magnetic properties at room temperature. The intrinsic coercivity H-ci of the optimally processed ribbons increased monotonically with increasing Zr content, from 751.7 kA/m for x=0 to 1005.3 kA/m for x=3.0. Unlike the coercivity, the remanence polarization J(r) increased first with Zr addition, from 0.898 T up to 1.041 T at x=1.5, and then decreased with further Zr addition. The maximum energy product (BH)(max) behaved similarly, increasing from 103.1 kJ/m(3) to a maximum of 175.2 kJ/m(3) at x=1.5. Microstructure studies using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) had shown a significant microstructure refinement with Zr addition. The absolute values of temperature coefficients of induction and coercivity were significantly increased with increasing Zr content, indicating that Zr was detrimental to thermal stability of the melt-spun Nd2Fe14B-type material.