Efficient recycling of End-of-Life ceramic ferrite hard magnets into new permanent ceramic magnets

Within current sustainable and circular economy approaches, recycling hexaferrite magnets has emerged as a strategic alternative to rare-earth-based magnets. This study proposes an efficient recycling and fabrication protocol for sintered ferrite magnets by merging annealing and sintering into a single step, reducing energy consumption and emissions. Rietveld analysis revealed temperature-dependent variations in ferrite and hematite fractions, with reduced hematite content at a sintering temperature of 1250°C. Magnetic characterization indicated decreasing coercive field, H c , and remanent magnetization, M r , with increasing sintering temperature, while a density of 93% was achieved at 1250°C for 30 minutes. X-ray diffraction, FE-SEM, and particle size analysis confirmed reduced magnetic properties of recycled magnets, compared to commercial counterparts, are due to hematite formation and sintering-induced grain growth. These findings highlight the importance of thermal optimization to balance densification and magnetic performance. This work demonstrates the first successful fabrication of fully recycled strontium ferrite magnets from End-of-Life materials.