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Alloy substituents for cost reduction in soft magnetic materials

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Abstract

Amorphous and nanocrystalline soft magnets have been investigated extensively in the past two decades. Many materials with attractive soft magnetic properties contain boron, which improves the glass formability, thermal stability and prevents undesirable grain growth. The high price of boron, however, makes the development of new soft magnetic materials and alternative synthesis routes important. We report here a synthesis of cobalt-rich alloys by substituting boron carbide for elemental boron to achieve significantly lower cost. Ribbons produced with and without boron carbide substitution were observed to exhibit comparable soft magnetic properties while the former results in 31–48% cost reduction. Extrapolating this idea to commercial VITROVAC 6025 and 6150, the cost reductions were calculated to be 56 and 50%, respectively, while both synthesis routes produced ribbons of similar soft magnetic properties. Our work here provides an attractive route to reduce the cost and increase the market competitiveness of soft magnets.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

M.E.M. and M.K. acknowledge the support from the Army Research Laboratory (Contract No. W911NF-14-1-0184) and M.E.M. acknowledges the support from the Wright Patterson Air Force (Contract No. FA8650-12-D-2225). This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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Correspondence to Michael Kurniawan.

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This author was an editor of this journal during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/jmr-editor-manuscripts/

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Kurniawan, M., Keylin, V. & McHenry, M.E. Alloy substituents for cost reduction in soft magnetic materials. Journal of Materials Research 30, 1072–1077 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.56

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