Synergetic Effect of Dy2O3 and Ca Co-Dopants towards Enhanced Coercivity of Rare Earth Abundant RE-Fe-B Magnets

Low coercivity is the main disadvantage of RE-Fe-B permanent magnets containing highly abundant rare earths (RE: La, Ce) from the application point of view, even though they exhibit many cost and resource advantages. In this work, an industrial mixed rare earth alloy (RE100 = La30.6Ce50.2Pr6.4Nd12.8) with a high amount of the more abundant elements was adopted to fabricate RE-Fe-B permanent magnets by means of mechanical alloying accompanied by post-annealing. A synergetic effect towards enhancing the coercivity was observed after co-doping with Dy2O3 and Ca, with the coercivity increasing from 2.44 kOe to 11.43 kOe for co-dopant percentages of 7 wt.% Dy2O3 + 2.3 wt.% Ca. Through analysis of the phase constituents and microstructure, it was determined that part of the Dy atoms entered the matrix of RE2Fe14B phase to enhance the magnetocrystalline anisotropy; due to the reductive effect of Ca on Dy2O3, nanocrystals of Dy-rich RE2Fe14B were present throughout the matrix, which could increase the resistance to domain wall movement. These are the dominant factors behind the improvement of the coercivity of the RE-Fe-B magnets with highly abundant RE elements.