Permanent magnets for the future sustainable society

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Project abstract

The objective of this project is to identify, develop and fabricate rare-earth free permanent magnet materials for renewable generator based energy sources. The permanent magnetic materials will be based on available non-toxic metal like iron or manganese using processing technologies with small impact on the environment. The prime customers are producers of electrical machines such as electrical motors and generators.

A good candidate should have a higher energy product than hard ferrites but not necessarily as high as todays REM based permanent magnets and exhibit high Curie temperature. The objective is to find a material with an energy product of 100-150 kJ/m3 and a Curie temperature of at least 600 K

Summary of work

2013-2015 The screening continues and the list of promising candidates now contains FeC, FeCoB, FeMnAl, MnAl, MnAlC, MnAlB, MnAlGa and MnBi with Curie temperatures of above 600K and theoretical (BH)MAX of 100-150 kJ/m3. (Fe,Co)B2 is the main target

2016-2018 The main target is changed to MnAl and MnBi based compounds

Together with Höganäs AB and the department of Chemistry, UU, powders of FeCoB, FeC, Fe5(Si,P)B2, MnAl, MnAlC, MnAlB and MnAlGa have been produced and analysed. Coercivities for MnAlC at least 10 times higher than for FeCoB, our starting material, have been detected.

2017 The Fe5(Si,P)B2 system is no longer regarded as candidate for a permanent magnet material.

The hopes for achieving a large (BH)MAX are growing. The MnAl alloys show promising values of the intrinsic properties and the materials respond well to different treatments. Further research is planned in order to understand the materials and optimizing the treatments. Initial steps in domain imaging using MOKE have been taken as well as by Magnetic Force Microscopy (Nyberg, Master thesis, 2017). Single crystals of MnBi have been synthesized for probing the anisotropy using torque magnetometry (Ekström, Master thesis, 2018)

Microstructure and Magnetic Properties for Mn-Al based Permanent Magnet Materials

Axel NYBERG (Master thesis Uppsala University 2017)

Temperature Dependent Magnetic Properties of Single Crystalline and Textured MnBi

FREDRIK EKSTRÖM (Master thesis Uppsala University, in manuscript 2017)

Investigations on MnAl with different alloying elements that have resulted in publications (see the reference list).

Event log

2013 Refreepermag (FP7, 7th framework program) meeting (Uppsala)

2014 Refreepermag meeting (Madrid)

2015 Refreepermag meeting (Vienna)

2015 Refreepermag meeting (Crete)

2015 International Conference on Magnetism (Barcelona). Poster

Experimental activity elsewhere than in Uppsala: DTU (Lyngby, Denmark); MAXlab (Lund, Sweden); Höganäs AB (Höganäs, Sweden).

Project reference-group

Hilmar Vidarsson,  Höganäs AB
Björn Skårman,  Höganäs AB
Olle Eriksson,  UU Fysik
Sandra Eriksson,  UU
Peter Svedlindh,  UU
Martin Sahlberg,  UU
Gabriella Andersson,  UU

MSc etc theses connected to the project

2017. Master thesis, Uppsala University, "Microstructure and Magnetic Properties for Mn-Al based Permanent Magnet Materials", Axel NYBERG.

2018. Master thesis, Uppsala University, "Temperature Dependent Magnetic Properties of Single Crystalline and Textured MnBi", Fredrik EKSTRÖM

Publications by this researcher

See alternatively the researcher's full DiVA list of publications, with options for sorting.
Publications in journals and conferences usually will not show until a while after they are published.

Freshwater and Lithium from Desalination Powered by Marine Energy Sources
Jennifer Leijon,   Sara Anttila,   Anna E. Frost,   Sofia Kontos,   Olof Lindahl,   Jens Engström,   Mats Leijon,   Cecilia Boström.
2020,   International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, vol. 30(3)

An Overview of MnAl Permanent Magnets with a Study on Their Potential in Electrical Machines
Sofia Kontos,   Anar Ibrayeva,   Jennifer Leijon,   Gustav Mörée,   Anna E. Frost,   Linus Schönström,   Klas Gunnarsson,   Peter Svedlindh,   Mats Leijon,   Sandra Eriksson.
2021,   Energies, vol. 13(21)

Measured and calculated properties of B-doped τ-phase MnAl : A rare earth free permanent magnet
Sofia Kontos,   Hailiang Fang,   Jiheng Li,   Erna Krisztina Delczeg-Czirjak,   Samrand Shafeie,   Peter Svedlindh,   Martin Sahlberg,   Klas Gunnarsson.
2019,   Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, vol. 474

Marine Renewable Energy Sources for Desalination, Generating Freshwater and Lithium
Jennifer Leijon,   Sara Anttila,   Anna E. Frost,   Sofia Kontos,   Jens Engström,   Mats Leijon,   Cecilia Boström.
2019,   29th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference ISOPE, 16-21 June, 2019, Honolulu, USA

Magnetic properties of Ruddlesden-Popper phases Sr3-& : A combined experimental and theoretical investigation
Samara Keshavarz,   Sofia Kontos,   Dariusz Wardecki,   Yaroslav Kvashnin,   Manuel Pereiro,   Swarup K. Panda,   Biplab Sanyal,   Olle Eriksson,   Jekabs Grins,   Gunnar Svensson,   Klas Gunnarsson,   Peter Svedlindh.
2018,   Physical Review Materials, vol. 2(4)

Magnetic properties of the Fe5SiB2−Fe5PB2 system
Daniel Hedlund,   Johan Cedervall,   Alexander Edström,   Miroslaw Werwinski,   Sofia Kontos,   Olle Eriksson,   Jan Rusz,   Peter Svedlindh,   Martin Sahlberg,   Klas Gunnarsson.
2017,   Physical Review B, vol. 96(9)

Improved NiMH performance by a surface treatment that creates magnetic Ni-clusters
Yang Shen,   Fei Peng,   Sofia Kontos,   Dag Noreus.
2016,   1st International Symposium on Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion (ESC-IS), SEP 07-09, 2015, Middle E Tech Univ, Ankara, TURKEY, vol. 41(23)

Magnetostructural transition in Fe5SiB2 observed with neutron diffraction
Johan Cedervall,   Sofia Kontos,   Thomas C. Hansen,   Olivier Balmes,   Francisco Javier Martinez-Casado,   Zdenek Matej,   Premysl Beran,   Peter Svedlindh,   Klas Gunnarsson,   Martin Sahlberg.
2016,   Journal of Solid State Chemistry, vol. 235

Directly obtained tau-phase MnAl, a high performance magnetic material for permanent magnets
Hailiang Fang,   Sofia Kontos,   Jonas Ångstrom,   Johan Cedervall,   Peter Svedlindh,   Klas Gunnarsson,   Martin Sahlberg.
2016,   Journal of Solid State Chemistry, vol. 237

Magnetic properties of Fe5SiB2 and its alloys with P, S, and Co
Miroslaw Werwinski,   Sofia Kontos,   Klas Gunnarsson,   Peter Svedlindh,   Johan Cedervall,   Viktor Höglin,   Martin Sahlberg,   Alexander Edström,   Olle Eriksson,   Jan Rusz.
2016,   PHYSICAL REVIEW B, vol. 93(17)

Publication list last updated from DiVA on 2024-01-10 15:22.

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