Structural and magnetic properties of SmCo/Co nanocomposites elaborated using sol–gel auto-combustion strategy

Abstract Sm–Co nanomagnetic material has received much attention recently since it is thought to be the next generation of permanent magnets with potential uses in energy technologies. Here, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is utilized for the first time as a fuel source in a sol–gel auto-combustion process to synthesize Sm–Co nanoparticles. Then, reduction–diffusion process strategy followed the auto-combustion pathway. Typically, Sm 2 O 3 and Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles were prepared by combining Sm and Co nitrates with the chelating agent EDTA. The Sm–Co nanocomposites were subsequently created by reductively annealing precursor oxides using calcium powder. To display the temperature-dependent breakdown of the original precursor and determine the correct annealing temperature, TGA was employed to identify the annealing temperature and the precursor products. Additionally, other physical characterization techniques such as XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, and VSM were used for further investigations. Three distinct Sm 1 Co x compositions with different cobalt ratios ( x = 4.0, 3.5, and 2.0) were prepared and studied. The findings demonstrate that the composition Sm 1 Co x ( x = 2.0) led to the formation of hard phases of SmCo 5 , Sm 2 Co 7 , and Sm 2 Co 17 . These particles’ morphology reveals that they are made up of nanowires with an average thickness of 25 nm. As well, according to the VSM findings, this composite had the highest coercivity H c and a maximum squareness ratio M r / M s , which were 2161 Oe and 0.57, respectively.