Textured Pr2Fe14B flakes with submicron or nanosize thickness prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling

The textured Pr2Fe14B nanoflakes were produced by surfactant-assisted ball milling (SABM). Single phase tetragonal structure was characterized for the samples before and after SABM by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The thickness and length of the as-milled flakes are mainly in the range of 50–150 nm and 0.5–2 μm, respectively. For the field-aligned Pr2Fe14B nanoflakes, the out-of-plane texture (the easy magnetization direction (EMD) along the c-axis) is indicated from the increasing (00l) peaks in the XRD patterns. SEM image demonstrates that the EMD is parallel to flaky surface, which is different from the RCo5 (R = rare earth) system with EMD perpendicular to the surface. We propose a hypothesis that the easy glide planes are related with the area of crystal planes. In addition, a large coercivity Hc = 3.9 kOe is observed in the Pr2Fe14B flakes with strong texture.