Magnetic Properties Hard-Soft SmCo 5 -FeNi and SmCo 5 -FeCo Composites Prepared by Electroless Coating Technique

Abstract

Composites of SmCo5-FeNi and SmCo5-FeCo, hard-soft magnetic materials, have been synthesized via electroless plating of magnetically hard SmCo5 powder particles with magnetically soft FeNi and FeCo, respectively. The influence of coating thickness of soft magnetic layers on the structure and magnetic properties of the composite has been studied. Overall FeNi coating was found to be less dense compared to FeCo for the same plating duration. Structurally the coat ing was found to be nodular in morphology. These coating have dramatic effect on the overall magnetic property of the composite. As compared to FeNi coated SmCo5 composite, two-fold increase in the saturation magnetization has been observed upon coating SmCo5 (Ms~28 emu/g) with FeCo to a value 56 emu/g. The coercivity of composite powder was found to decrease with increasing the coating layer thickness. The absence of exchange spring behavior in the hard-soft composite is attributed to magnetically soft layer thickness exceeding the theoretical length limit for exchange-spring coupling.