PRODUCTION OF RARE EARTH-IRON NITRIDE

PURPOSE:To provide the fine powder of the rare earth-iron nitride which has high coercive force and is useful as a magnet material by subjecting ultrarapidly cooled powder of a rare earth-iron base alloy to a nitriding treatment. CONSTITUTION:The powder obtd. by ultrarapidly cooling the melt of the rare earth-iron base alloy is annealed in a vacuum and is then subjected to the nitriding treatment in a gaseous nitrogen atmosphere, etc. As a result, the fine powder of the rare earth-iron nitride having the excellent magnetic characteristics, such as high coercive force, is obtd. The compsn. of the resulted rare earth-iron nitride is expressed by RxFe1-x-yNy by atomic ratios where 5