Enhanced coercivity and remanence of PrCo₅ nanoflakes prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling with heat-treated starting powder

PrCo₅ nanoflakes with strong texture and high coercivity of 8.15 kOe were prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling with heat-treated starting powder. The thickness and length of the as-milled nanoflakes are mainly in the ranges of 50–100 nm and 0.5–3 μm, respectively. The x-ray diffraction patterns demonstrate that the heat treatment can increase the single phase and crystallinity of the PrCo₅ compound, and combined with the demagnetization curves, indicate that the single phase and crystallinity are important for preparing high-coercivity and strong-textured rare earth permanent magnetic nanoflakes. In addition, the coercivity mechanism of the as-milled PrCo₅ nanoflakes is studied by the angle dependence of coercivity for an aligned sample and the field dependence of coercivity, isothermal (IRM) and dc demagnetizing (DCD) remanence curves for an unaligned sample. The results indicate that the coercivity is dominated by co-existing mechanisms of pinning and nucleation. Furthermore, exchange coupling and dipolar coupling also co-exist in the sample.