Unveiling potential candidates for rare-earth-free permanent magnet and magnetocaloric effect applications: a high throughput screening in Fe-N alloys

TL;DR

This study uses high-throughput density functional theory to identify 49 Fe-N compounds with potential for rare-earth-free permanent magnets and magnetocaloric applications, highlighting 15 as promising permanent magnets and 40 as magnetocaloric candidates.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive high-throughput screening of Fe-N alloys, identifying new potential materials for permanent magnet and magnetocaloric applications.

Findings

15 compounds are potential permanent magnets with >1 MJ/m3 anisotropy energy

40 compounds identified as potential magnetocaloric effect candidates

Fe-N compounds offer promising opportunities for rare-earth-free applications

Abstract

Based on high-throughput density functional theory calculations, we have found 49 ferromag-netic cases in FexN1-x (0<x<1) compounds, focusing especially on permanent magnet and giant magnetocaloric effect applications. It is found that 15 compounds are potential permanent mag-nets with a magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy more than 1 MJ/m3, filling in the gap of appli-cation spectrum between high-performance and widely used permanents. Among the potential permanent magnets, Fe2N can be classified as a hard magnet while the other 14 compounds can be classified as semi-hard magnets. According to the calculations of magnetic deformation proxy, 40 compounds are identified as potential giant magnetocaloric effect candidates. We suspect that Fe-N compounds provide fine opportunities for applications in both rare-earth free permanent magnets and magnetocaloric effect.