Effect of Pr-Ga dual-alloys diffusion on magnetic properties and thermal stability of hot-deformed PrNd-Fe-B magnets

To investigate the influence of the addition of Pr–Ga alloys on magnetic properties and morphology of materials, the hot-deformed PrNd-Fe-B magnets were prepared by the addition of Pr–Ga alloys using a dual-alloys diffusion. The room-temperature coercivity of the hot-deformed PrNd-Fe-B magnets increases substantially from 1.68 to 2.34 T, while the remanence decreases from 1.42 to 1.24 T, by the addition of 5 wt% Pr–Ga alloys. Moreover, the thermal stability of coercivity improves from ?0.46%/^oC to ?0.42%/^oC. Two types of grain boundary phases (PrNd-rich and PrNd-Ga-rich) are generated at grain boundaries by microstructural analysis, resulting in the decrease of Fe element concentration from more than 60% to about 10% at grain boundaries. The decrease of ferromagnetic element concentration at grain boundaries and the refinement of grain are considered to be the main reasons for the improvement of coercivity and thermal stability.