One-step manufacturing process for neodymium-iron (magnet-grade) master alloy

Prabhat K. Tripathy; Kunal Mondal; Amey R. Khanolkar

doi:10.1016/j.mset.2021.07.001

One-step manufacturing process for neodymium-iron (magnet-grade) master alloy

Prabhat K. Tripathy, Kunal Mondal, Amey R. Khanolkar

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Neodymium iron boron magnet has registered heightened demand due to its rapidly increasingly application in the clean energy sector. These magnets are manufactured by melting the mixture, consisting of neodymium, iron and boron followed by casting into ingots. The ingots are subsequently pulverized to powder, which, in turn, is sintered and magnetized to form the permanent magnet. An alternative approach is the controlled addition of boron to the neodymium iron master alloy to fabricate the magnet. The present process discusses an alternative and novel electrochemical approach to prepare the neodymium-iron master alloy, directly from the mixed oxides of neodymium and iron, in just one step. The mixed oxide pellet was cathodically polarized in a pool of molten calcium chloride in the temperature range 800–950°C, against an oxygen-evolving anode. The reduced alloy could not only retain its original structure but also exhibited magnetic behavior.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	249-255
Number of pages	7
Journal	Materials Science for Energy Technologies
Volume	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mset.2021.07.001
State	Published - Jan 2021
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The research was supported by the Critical Materials Institute, United States Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office. The manuscript was authored by Battelle Energy Alliance LLC under the contract no. DE-AC07-051D14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes.

Funders	Funder number
Critical Materials Institute
U.S. Government
U.S. Department of Energy
Advanced Manufacturing Office	DE-AC07-051D14517
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Keywords

Energy material
Green manufacturing
Magnet-grade master alloy
One-step fabrication
Oxide precursor
Polarization
Sintering

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.mset.2021.07.001

Cite this

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title = "One-step manufacturing process for neodymium-iron (magnet-grade) master alloy",

abstract = "Neodymium iron boron magnet has registered heightened demand due to its rapidly increasingly application in the clean energy sector. These magnets are manufactured by melting the mixture, consisting of neodymium, iron and boron followed by casting into ingots. The ingots are subsequently pulverized to powder, which, in turn, is sintered and magnetized to form the permanent magnet. An alternative approach is the controlled addition of boron to the neodymium iron master alloy to fabricate the magnet. The present process discusses an alternative and novel electrochemical approach to prepare the neodymium-iron master alloy, directly from the mixed oxides of neodymium and iron, in just one step. The mixed oxide pellet was cathodically polarized in a pool of molten calcium chloride in the temperature range 800–950°C, against an oxygen-evolving anode. The reduced alloy could not only retain its original structure but also exhibited magnetic behavior.",

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AU - Mondal, Kunal

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Y1 - 2021/1

N2 - Neodymium iron boron magnet has registered heightened demand due to its rapidly increasingly application in the clean energy sector. These magnets are manufactured by melting the mixture, consisting of neodymium, iron and boron followed by casting into ingots. The ingots are subsequently pulverized to powder, which, in turn, is sintered and magnetized to form the permanent magnet. An alternative approach is the controlled addition of boron to the neodymium iron master alloy to fabricate the magnet. The present process discusses an alternative and novel electrochemical approach to prepare the neodymium-iron master alloy, directly from the mixed oxides of neodymium and iron, in just one step. The mixed oxide pellet was cathodically polarized in a pool of molten calcium chloride in the temperature range 800–950°C, against an oxygen-evolving anode. The reduced alloy could not only retain its original structure but also exhibited magnetic behavior.

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KW - Green manufacturing

KW - Magnet-grade master alloy

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One-step manufacturing process for neodymium-iron (magnet-grade) master alloy

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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