Research On Preparation Of DyFe₂ Alloy

REFe₂ Laves phase alloys are magnetostriction materials. They have Joule, Villari, dE, Viedemann, Anti-Viedemann and Jump effects on the magnetic field at the room temperatures. They are widely applied to acoustics, micro-displacement, mechanics sensor, magnetics, calorifics and aviation fields. At the room temperatures DyFe₂ alloy has giant magnetostriction efficient, which is more 10 or 100 times than the ordinary materials. It is highly stressed by the world's experts because DyFe₂ alloy have the high conversion ratio between mechanics and power, and have high energy density and rapid machine response. However the conventional technology of manufacture of the alloy is complex, the productive equipment is expensive, productive condition is strict, product composition is complex and the technology is harmful to the environment. So the application and development are restricted.Based on the direct electrochemical reduction theory (FFC Cambridge) ,direct electrochemical reduction of Dy₂O₃-Fe to prepare DyFe₂ alloy in molten CaCl₂-NaCl in the present paper. The effect of molten CaCl₂-NaCl temperature, sintering temperature, sintering time and optimum synthetic conditions on the product were studied.The dysprosium metal and DyFe₂ alloy are prepared by the direct electrochemical reduction. The results demonstrate that the effects of sintering temperature and sintering time on the DyFe₂ alloy preparation were small, the effect of molten CaCl₂-NaCl temperature was large, sequence was molten CaCl2-NaCl temperature, sintering temperature, sintering time. The optimum synthetic condition are: temperature of molten CaCl₂-NaCl is 850℃, sintering temperature is 1000℃, sintering time is 8 hours. The product gas are CO and CO₂The approach is simple, convenient, cheap, friendly to environment.