Objectives:

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The present project aims to develop 2 demonstration models consisting of new permanent magnets with lower cost and high performance. We propose two ways to achieve this goal:

1. by obtaining new hard magnetic compounds with low rare-earth content, with remarkable magnetic properties (magnetization, coercivity, energy product).  New intermetallic compounds of R-M-A type (R = rare earth, M = transition metal 3d, A = metalloid, carbon or nitrogen) will be developed, having low critical rare earth content, high anisotropy and high saturation magnetization. Starting from known systems, our aim is to improve the coercivity of the samples through a very good control of the composition and of the microstructure. Also, using theoretical calculations, we aim to discover new phases with high magnetization, high anisotropy and high Curie temperature. This can be obtained by theoretical exploration of the phase diagrams and by structural optimization, followed by calculation of the magnetic properties (magnetization and the Curie temperature). Following this procedure, we intend to propose theoretically a series of new compounds which will be obtained and characterized experimentally (magnetization, Curie temperature, energy product). In particular, due to the high interest in obtaining permanent magnets with low critical elements (Dy, Nd, Pr) content, we intend to develop a compound in which Ce (or possibly Y, La) will replace all or part of these critical elements, keeping a Curie temperature over 600°C, residual magnetization over 10 kG  and coercivity over 10 kOe.

2. to produce and to stabilize a new hard magnetic phase without rare earth content, with high intrinsic coercivity and high magnetization, based on Mn-Bi and Mn-Al alloys, where we obtained promising results. We propose the increase the anisotropy of the 3d alloys by inducing a tetragonal distortion of the structure, obtained by addition of interstitial N, C, B or by additions of other d transition elements. Another route will be by controlling the phase stability and the thermic treatments, having decisive influence on the sample’s microstructure. The microstructure control, together with the intrinsic ways of anisotropy increase by doping will allow us to obtain rare-earth free compounds with large thermal stability range, high anisotropy and exchange induced d-d positive interactions crucial for obtaining a high coercivity, in order to build rare-earth free permanent magnets with competitive performances.

The success of the proposed research leads to magnetic materials with high values of magnetization, coercivity and energy product. The proposed studies suppose the evolution from laboratory experimental studies (TRL2) to experimental proof of concept (TRL3) concretised in permanent magnets with optimized properties. Synthesis of new magnetic materials  and their subsequent use to obtain permanent magnets with lower costs and high efficiency can be classified as jump from TRL2 to TRL 3.