Effect of surfactant-assisted low-temperature annealing on the refinement of particle size and enhancement of magnetic properties of SrFe12O19 ferrite.

The fabrication of SrFe 12 O 19 ferrite powders with good magnetic properties is a key process in the industrial production of permanent magnets. Remanence and coercivity of the powders was seriously decreased due to the generation of surface lattice defects produced during the crushing of pre-sintered ferrite powders. And the traditionally applied high-temperature annealing above 800 °C can only partially restore the magnetic properties. In this work, the effects of types, adding mode and contents of surfactant (hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, triethanolamine) on the magnetic properties of crushed powders of the pre-sintered SrFe 12 O 19 ferrite under a low-temperature annealing of 400 °C process were systematically explored. The results showed that surfactants are beneficial to restore or even enhance the magnetic properties of the crushed powders compared with the pre-sintered ferrite due to the refinement of the particles and repairing the surface defects. The surfactant-assisted low-temperature annealing process proposed in this work will promote the commercial production of high performance ferrite powders and ferrite magnets, which can also effectively reduce the production energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]