“…Besides physical reasons (e.g., microstructural defects), chemical variation within the magnets by surface oxidation has been recently proposed to be a decisive (if not an exclusive) factor leading to the collapse of their cellular precipitations structure. Oxidation of the 2:17-type magnets has been investigated by some authors (Chen et al, , 2001Kardelky et al, 2004;Kardelky, (110) Gebert, Gutfleisch, Hoffmann, & Schultz, 2005;Liu & Walmer, 2005;Liu, Marinescu, Vora, Wu, & Harmer, 2009;Mao et al, 2014;Pauw et al, 1997;Pragnell, Williams, & Evans, 2008;Pragnell, Evans, & Williams, 2009;Wang, Zheng, An, Zhang, & Jiang, 2013;Yang et al, 2012Yang et al, , 2013a. The unacceptable coercivity loss may be prevented by adding appropriate surface coatings that can effectively offer oxidation protection to the magnets.…”