Towards Production of Cost-Effective Modification of SmCo₅-Type Alloys Suitable for Permanent Magnets

SmCo₅ constitutes one of the strongest classes of permanent magnets, which exhibit magnetocrystalline anisotropy with uniaxial character and enormous energy and possess high Curie temperature. However, the performance of SmCo₅ permanent magnets is hindered by a limited energy product and relatively high supply risk. Sm is a moderately expensive element within the lanthanide group, while Co is a more expensive material than Fe, making SmCo₅-based permanent magnets among the most expensive materials in the group. Subsequently, the need for new materials with less content in critical and thus expensive resources is obvious. A promising path of producing new compounds that meet these requirements is the chemical modification of established materials used in PM towards the reduction of expensive resources, for example, reducing Co content with transition metals (like Fe, Ni) or using as substitutes raw rare earth materials with greater abundance than global demand, like Ce and La. Important instruments to achieve these goals are theoretical calculations, such as ab initio methods and especially DFT-based calculations, in predicting possible stable RE-TM intermetallic compounds and their magnetic properties. This review aims to present the progress of recent years in the production of improved SmCo₅-type magnets.