Effect of neodymium and yttrium addition on microstructure and DC soft magnetic property of dual-phase FeCoNi(CuAl)0.8 high-entropy alloy

• Published in: Journal of rare earths Vol. 41; no. 10; pp. 1562 - 1567
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jiaxin, Lv, Mengxin, Liu, Chang, Tan, Xiaohua, Xu, Hui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-10-2023
• Subjects: Dual-phase high-entropy alloy; Rare earths; Soft magnetic property; Stripe domain structure; Dual-phase high-entropy alloy; Soft magnetic property; Rare earths; Stripe domain structure
• ISSN: 1002-0721; 2509-4963
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jre.2022.06.005

The correlation between the microstructure and soft magnetic properties under the direct current (DC) mode of dual-phase FeCoNi(CuAl)0.8RE0.05 (RE = Nd, Y) high-entropy alloys (HEAs) was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) results show that all samples consist of face-centered cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC) phases. In comparison to the volume fraction of BCC phase of the RE-free HEA (25.3%), Nd and Y additions dramatically increase it to 42.0% and 43.3%, which leads to an increase of the saturation magnetization. RE addition reduces the average grain size from 7.26 μm of the RE-free HEA to 5.42 μm of RE = Nd HEA and 4.88 μm of RE = Y HEA. Stripe magnetic domain structure is observed in both FCC and BCC phases in the RE-free and RE-containing HEAs. The additives of Nd and Y both decrease the stripe pattern width in FCC and BCC phases. The refined structure and finely spaced stripe domain by RE addition can decrease the remanence. Compared with the RE-free HEA, RE addition can effectively enhance the DC soft magnetic property by decreasing the remanence, the coercivity, and the hysteresis loss.
The initial magnetization curves and flux density-applied field loops of the RE-free and FeCoNi(CuAl)0.8RE0.05 (RE = Nd, Y) HEAs were measured at room temperature. The Nd and Y addition can improve the DC soft magnetic property by decreasing the remanence, the coercivity, and the hysteresis loss. [Display omitted]
•RE addition increases the fraction of BCC phase and decreases the average grain size.•Stripe magnetic domain structure is observed in both FCC phase and BCC phase.•RE addition can effectively improve the DC soft magnetic property.