New Sustainable Fe-rich Magnet using a predictive Alloy and Microstructure Design Toolbox

Introduction

Nd-Fe-B magnets are central to both green mobility and the generation of electricity from renewable resources. However, the need to incorporate heavy rare earths like Tb and Dy, which are highly critical raw materials, to operate these magnets above 100 °C (required for electric vehicles and wind turbines) makes them very costly, environmentally damaging, and results in a very fragile value chain. Despite four decades of effort, no practical alternative to Nd-Fe-B has been found.

Background

SmFe12-based compounds have superior intrinsic magnetic properties, actually surpassing those of benchmark Nd-Fe-B, and they do not require additional heavy rare earths. The challenge with SmFe12 is phase instability in the bulk form and the creation of a microstructure that will convert the large intrinsic anisotropy field into usable coercivity.

Research Challenges

What we know so far is that the solution lies in combining multiple alloying elements, each impacting the properties differently. In Sm(Fe,M,X,Z)12, for example, 20 alloying elements result in around 10^8 combinations (experiments) if each element varies from 1 to 15 at.% in quinary compositions.

Project Overview

MAG-TOOL will create a cutting-edge toolbox that combines experimental techniques with state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithms, eliminating the need for trial-and-error. This breakthrough approach drastically reduces the number of experiments from a daunting 10^8 down to a manageable 10^2.

Methodology

MAG-TOOL will achieve this by breaking the multi-element complexity, starting to predict the compounds with useful phases using only three elements. This knowledge will be transferred to multi-element situations and combined with robust experiments to deliver superior magnetic properties in powders and melt-spun ribbons.

Innovation

MAG-TOOL will also include a laser-deposition, additive-manufacturing system for rapidly creating many compositions within the same bulk samples through compositional gradients.

Expected Outcome

The outcome of the project will be the development of new medium- and high-performance sustainable magnets.