Abstract
The glass forming ability and magnetic properties of Nd5Fe68-xB23Mo4Yx (x = 0, 2, 4, 6) alloys prepared by copper mold casting technique have been studied. Amorphous rods with a diameter of 2 mm were obtained in the Nd5Fe64B23Mo4Y4 alloy. After annealing for 10 min at 1013 K, the Nd5Fe64B23Mo4Y4 alloy showed optimal hard magnetic properties with the coercivity of 764.2 kA/m, remanence of 0.6 T and maximum energy product of 57.3 kJ/m(3), respectively. The enhanced magnetic properties can be ascribed to the strong exchange coupling among the magnetically soft alpha-Fe (25-30 rim), Fe3B (30-35 rim) and hard Nd2Fe14B (40-50 nm) grains present in the magnet microstructure. Large size bulk nanocomposite magnets with sound magnetic properties make the Nd-Fe-B-Mo-Y alloy system a promising candidate for industrial applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.