Magnetic properties and microstructures of the Nd-Fe-B magnet powder produced by hydrogen treatment

The hydrogen treatment of the Nd-Fe-B alloy ingots was found to produce magnet powders with good magnetic properties. Typical magnetic properties of these powders are as follows; 4πIs = 9.5 kG, Br = 7.7 kG, iHc = 9.4 kOe, and (BH)max = 12.2 MGOe. Microstructural studies of these powders showed that they are made of fine crystalline grains of ∼0.3 μm diameter and that these crystalline grains in the individual magnet powder are not necessarily enclosed with boundary phase(s), which is quite different from previously known Nd-Fe-B magnets, i.e., the sintered magnet (the nucleation type magnet) or the amorphous ribbon magnet (the pinning type magnet). It is also noted that the size of these crystalline grains is comparable to that of the single magnetic domain of the tetragonal Nd2Fe14B intermetallic compound and the coercive force of these powders appears to be related to their fine crystalline grain size.