A novel hard magnetic material for sintering permanent magnets

We have discovered that the substitution of Ga or Si for Fe in Sm2Fe17Cx helps the formation of high‐carbon rare‐earth iron compounds with 2:17‐type structure. We have succeeded in preparing Sm2Fe15M2Cx (M=Ga, x=0, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0; M=Si, x=0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5) compounds with Th2Zn17‐type structure by arc melting. The carbides are single phase except for Sm2Fe15Ga2C3.0, which contains a few percent of α‐Fe. The Curie temperature TC of Sm2Fe15Si2Cx compounds is found to increase from 550 to 590 K, as x increases from 0 to 1.5. For Sm2Fe15Ga2Cx, TC increases with x from 565 K for x=0 to 635 K for x=2.0, and then decreases with x. Room‐temperature saturation magnetization of these carbides is in excess of 100 emu/g and has a small dependence on carbon content. All compounds of Sm2Fe15M2Cx studied in this work except for Sm2Fe15Si2 exhibit an easy c‐axis anisotropy at room temperature and show an anisotropy field of higher than 90 kOe for x≥1.0. The present work suggests the possibility of producing high‐pe...