Synthesis and magnetic studies of Mn/Fe/Co doping V2SnC ternary ceramics

MAX phases are layered ternary carbides and nitrides with unique properties, doping transition metals in it is attracting significant attentions for the processing of this relatively new class of materials. In this paper, a magnetic solid solution MAX phase V2(Sn1−xAx)C (A = Mn, Fe, Co) was synthesized by doping Mn/Fe/Co atoms into V2SnC by pressure-less sintering. The XRD results show that when x = 0.4, the characteristic peak shifts to the right, and the substitution reaches saturation. SEM and TEM show that doping does not change the original layered morphology and hexagonal crystal form, but only the lattice constants decrease slightly. Magnetic test results indicate that V2(Sn1−xAx)C is a typical low-temperature magnetic material with a Curie temperature around 60 K, and the magnetization increases with the increase of doping amount. Moreover, we explained the reasons of V2SnC doping A-site instead of M-site and the changing trend of the magnetic moments by first-principles calculations, which are consistent with the experimental results.