Thermal effects in nano-structured magnetic structures. Engineering, PhD, (funded)

Project description

In two-phase permanent magnets (Balamurugan et al. 2012) the presence of a soft magnetic phase improves the thermal stability of the remanent magnetization and increases the energy product (Bance, et al. APL 2014, Hrkac, et al. Scripta 2014). Nano-structuring provides a strong enough exchange coupling between the different phases so that coercive field is sufficiently high, in order to achieve energy products of 400 kJ/m3 at 450 K. A major problem is to find suitable structural stable binary or ternary systems to achieve this goal.

A high magnetization at elevated temperature may be achieved in magnets based on (Nd, Sm)Fe12Nx. A key issue of the 1:12 phase is its structural stability. We will use ab initio and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the phase stability of RE(Fe,X)12, whereby RE stands for rare earth elements and X for Ti, V, and Cr. The results will be supported by our industrial partner Toyota and the Frauenhofer Institute in Darmstadt and will include on-site visits in Germany and Japan.

The aim is to show that the ternary elements stabilize the structure by reducing the cohesive energy and therefore can provide a real contender for thermally stable high performance magnets for automotive and energy harnessing applications.

The project is part of the EPSRC project EP/P02047X/1.

For more information about the project and informal enquiries, please contact the primary supervisor, Professor Gino Hrkac: http://emps.exeter.ac.uk/engineering/staff/gh303.

For further information please see: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=2706.