The R-Fe-B (R, rare earth) sintered magnets prepared with different ratio of alloys of MM-Fe-B (MM, misch-metal) and Nd-Fe-B by dual alloy method were investigated. As expected, the high ratio of MM-Fe-B alloy degrades the hard magnetic properties heavily with intrinsic coercivity lower than 5 kOe. When the atomic ratio MM/R ≤ 21.5% the magnetic properties can reach a practical level of Br ≥ 12.1 kGs, Hcj ≥ 10.7 kOe, and (BH)max ≥ 34.0 MGOe. And the effect of Hcj enhancement by the grain boundary diffusion process is obvious when MM/R ≤ 21.5%. It is revealed that the decrement of intrinsic magnetic properties of R2Fe14B matrix phase is not the main reason of the degradation of the magnets with high MM ratio. The change of deteriorated microstructure together with phase component plays fundamental roles in low Hcj. In high MM ratio magnets, (a) after annealing, Ce atoms inside main phase are inclined to be segregated in the outer layer of the main phase grains; (b) there is no thin layer of Ce-rich phase as an analogue of Nd-rich phase to separate main phase grains; (c) excessive Ce tends to form CeFe2 grains.

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Bonded La(Fe, Si)13 magnetic refrigeration materials have been prepared, and the microstructure, mechanical properties, and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of bonded LaFe11.7Si1.3C0.2Hx have been investigated systematically. Bonded materials show porous architecture, and the mechanical properties increase with the increase of epoxy resin content, which could fill more pores and boundaries and thus enhance the binding force between different particles. Bonded LaFe11.7Si1.3C0.2H1.8 with 3 wt. % epoxy resin exhibits a compressive strength of 162 MPa, 35% higher than that of bulk compound. The mass magnetic entropy change (ΔSM) remains nearly unchanged while the volumetric ΔSM reduces due to the decrease of density in bonded materials. For a low magnetic field change of 2 T, the maximum ΔSM value of bonded LaFe11.7Si1.3C0.2H1.8 is ∼10.2 J/kg K and ∼54.7 mJ/cm3 K, which is larger than those of some magnetocaloric materials in the same temperature range. Enhanced mechanical properties and great MCE suggest that bonded La(Fe, Si)13-based materials could be promising candidates of magnetocaloric materials for practical applications of magnetic refrigeration.

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Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of intermetallic RFeSi (R = Tb and Dy) compounds have been investigated systematically. The RFeSi compounds undergo a second-order magnetic transition from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic states with the variation of temperature. The Curie temperatures determined from magnetization measurements are 110 K and 70 K for TbFeSi and DyFeSi, respectively, which are quite close to the liquefaction temperatures of natural gas (111 K) and nitrogen (77 K). Both compounds exhibit nearly same large MCE around their respective ordering temperatures. For a low magnetic field change of 1 T, the maximum values of magnetic entropy change −ΔSM and adiabatic temperature change ΔTad are 5.3 J/kg K and 2.1 K for TbFeSi, 4.8 J/kg K and 1.7 K for DyFeSi, respectively. Furthermore, a composite material based on (Tb1−xDyx)FeSi compounds is designed theoretically by using a numerical method, and it exhibits a constant −ΔScom of ∼1.4 J/kg K for a field change of 1 T in the wide temperature range of 67–108 K, satisfying the requirement of Ericsson-cycle magnetic refrigeration over the liquefaction temperatures of nitrogen and natural gas.

The magnetization behaviors show a strong pinning effect on domain wall motion in optimally melt-spun Pr8Fe87B5 ribbons at room temperature. According to analysis, the coercivity is determined by the nucleation field of reversed domain, and the pinning effect, which results from the weak exchange coupling at interface, makes domain nucleation processes independent and leads to non-uniform magnetization reversals. At a temperature of 60 K, owing to the weak exchange coupling between soft-hard grains, magnetization reversal undergoes processes of spring domain nucleation in soft grains and irreversible domain nucleation in hard grains, and the pinning effect remains strong among hard grains.

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