Phase constitution and microstructure of Ce—Fe—B strip-casting alloy

The strip-casting technique plays an important role in fabricating high coercivity sintered magnet. In this paper, we investigate the phase constitution and the microstructure of rapidly solidified Ce—Fe—B alloy fabricated by strip-casting. We find that the Ce2Fe14B phase coexists with Fe, Fe2B, and CeFe2 phases in the Ce—Fe—B strips. The eutectic structure consisting of Fe and Fe2B is encased in Ce2Fe14B grains, which is blocked by the CeFe2 grains at triple junctions, indicating that the microstructure of Ce—Fe—B strip is characteristic of a peritectic solidification. Thermal analysis indicates that the large supercooling of Ce2Fe14B results in the residual Fe and Fe2B. The microstructural optimization in Ce—Fe—B strips without Fe and Fe2B could be achieved by a heat treatment of 1000 °C.