Effects of calcining temperature and heating rate on properties of high-permeability NiCuZn ferrites

The effects of calcining temperature and heating rate during sintering on densification and magnetic properties of high-permeability NiCuZn ferrites were investigated. It was confirmed that increasing calcining temperature lead to increase of the molding density (the pressed density of samples that have not been sintered), both molding density and activity of the calcined powders determined the sintering density (the density of samples after sintering) of the samples. With the calcining temperature of 1060 °C, the sintering density reached a peak. The initial permeability also peaked with the calcining temperature of 1060 °C, which could be attributed to the highest sintering density and relatively big grain size. Quality factor peaked with the calcining temperature of 1020 °C, which could be attributed to the biggest grain size. Calcining temperature had no distinct connection with Curie temperature, and it had a slight effect on the saturation magnetism (B_s) due to varieties of the sintering density. Further studies showed that heating rate had a pronounced effect on initial permeability and quality factor, which could be attributed to a variety in the grain size. The critical heating rate value was 2 °C/min in order to obtain high-performance NiCuZn ferrites with both high initial permeability and high quality factor.