PNNL

Abstract

MnBi attracts great attention in recent years for its great potential as permanent magnet materials. It is unique because its coercivity increases with increasing temperature, which makes it a good hard phase for exchange coupling nanocomposite magnet. MnBi phase is difficult to obtain, partly because the reaction between Mn and Bi is peritectic, and partly because Mn is easy to react with oxygen. MnO formation is irreversible and causes degradation to the magnetic properties. In this paper, we report our effort on developing MnBi permanent magnet. High purity MnBi (>90%) can be routinely produced in large quantity. The obtained powder exhibit 74 emu/g saturation magnetization at room temperature with 9 T applied field. After alignment, the powder exhibits 11.6 MGOe, and the sintered bulk magnet exhibit 7.8 MGOe at room temperature. Thermal stability study shows that the MnBi is stable up to 473 K in air.