Collaborating on critical materials research

Workshop on critical materials needs of the aerospace industry: Washington, D.C., February 1981

A recent Critical Materials Strategy report highlighted the supply chain risk associated with neodymium and dysprosium, which are used in the manufacturing of neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets (PM). In response, the Critical Materials Institute is developing innovative strategies to increase and diversify primary production, develop substitutes, reduce material intensity and recycle critical materials. Our goal in this paper is to propose an economic model to quantify the impact of one of these strategies, material intensity reduction. Technologies that reduce material intensity impact the economics of magnet manufacturing in multiple ways because of: (1) the lower quantity of critical material required per unit PM, (2) more efficient use of limited supply, and (3) the potential impact on manufacturing cost. However, the net benefit of these technologies to a magnet manufacturer is an outcome of an internal production decision subject to market demand characteristics, availability and resource constraints. Our contribution in this paper shows how a manufacturer’s production economics moves from a region of being supply-constrained, to a region enabling the market optimal production quantity, to a region being constrained by resources other than critical materials, as the critical material intensity changes. Key insights for engineers and material scientists are: (1) material intensity reduction can have a significant market impact, (2) benefits to manufacturers are non-linear in the material intensity reduction, (3) there exists a threshold value for material intensity reduction that can be calculated for any target PM application, and (4) there is value for new intellectual property (IP) when existing manufacturing technology is IP-protected.

The United States is highly vulnerable to problems in supply of critical and strategic materials and it is recognized that there is a whole spectrum of options for responding to such crises. While a number of supply oriented options are under study by various groups, the focus of this Workshop was on the technical options. The Workshop was held principally to develop information for the report required by the Department of Commerce, but should also be useful to the other agencies in their responsibilities. The DoC report is supposed to identify a materials needs case related to national security, economic well-being, and industrial productivity, to assess critical materials needs, and to recommend programs to meet these needs.

Critical raw materials: A perspective from the materials science community

Lanthanides are critical materials [1] with applications in advanced materials and technologies. Many of the chemical and physical properties of the lanthanides (LNs) are not distinct across the fifteen rare earth elements. This includes sizes, charges, standard potentials, and ligand binding affinities. The similar physical and chemical properties make separations of lanthanides from lanthanides challenging.What is distinct across the lanthanides is the number of electrons m and the number of unpaired electrons in the seven 4f orbitals. Many of the technologically interesting and distinct properties of LNs arise through 4fm electrons. This includes magnetism, ion color, optical properties, and electron transfer rates. Advanced materials and technologies reliant on LNs include electronics, high field permanent magnets, lasers, medical diagnostics, glasses, ceramics, metallurgy, lighting, computing and data storage, phosphors, and batteries. Technologies of wind turbines, efficient lighting, electric vehicles, and electronics such as cell phones and displays rely uniquely on lanthanides. Although not extensively studied, LNs may provide opportunities to select efficient earth abundant electrocatalysts, tailored to specific reactions. .Lanthanides are not rare, with abundances comparable to transition metals. Purification of lanthanides is however energy and time intensive because few properties are distinct across the lanthanides. As a result, ~70 % of lanthanides are sourced from China. Because of possible supply disruption, lanthanides are critical materials.[1] With better, reliable access to higher purity lanthanides, advanced technologies and materials can be improved and new advances proposed and evaluated.The U.S. government projects growth for lanthanides to increase 2 ~ 4x over the next 10 years. A large driver of this demand is due to the adoption of electric vehicles for transportation and increased adoption of larger and taller wind turbines for clean energy generation. Permanent magnets will be a substantial driver of increased demand, focused on Nd, Dy, Pr, and Tb. Increased availability of other rare earth elements at higher purity and lower prices will lead to adoption in new applications.This presentation briefly reviews lanthanides for importance in technological and materials, the unique chemical and physical properties of lanthanides that are the foundation for advanced technologies, purification challenges, costs, and status as critical materials. Reference [1] Department of Energy, Critical Materials Rare Earths Supply Chain: A Situational White Paper, S. Buchanan, 2020, www.energy.gov/eere/amo/downloads/critical-materials-supply-chain-white-paper-april-2020.

<abstract> <p>Material databases are important tools to provide and store information from material research. Rising concerns about supply-chain risks to raw materials presents a need to incorporate raw-material market and end-use application data, beyond basic chemical and physical properties, into a material database. One key challenge for researchers working on critical materials is information scarcity and inconsistency. This paper introduces, as a result of a two-year project, a critical-material commodity database (CMCD) incorporated with a low-code web-based platform that allows easy access for users and simple updates for the authors. The main goal of this project was to educate material scientists on the applications having the most impact on the supply chain and current industrial specifications/markets for each application. The objective was to provide material researchers with harmonized information so that they could gain a better understanding of the market, focus their technologies on an application with a high potential for commercialization, and better contribute to supply-chain risk reduction. While the goal was met with high receptivity, several limitations stemmed from query design, distribution platform, and quality of data source. To overcome some of these limitations and expand on CMCD's potential, we are building a public webpage with an improved interface, better data organization, and higher extensibility.</p> </abstract>

As materials scientists and engineers, the primary focus of our industry is on performance. Whether selecting from existing materials and processes or developing new alloys and processing techniques, it is first and foremost important to meet the functional requirements of any given application. Next, it is often most logical and practical to select the option which minimizes cost while maximizing performance. However, what role do other factors, such as life cycle environmental impacts and supply-chain security, play in this decision-making process? What role should they play, now and in the future? And what is our responsibility, as a community, in leading the way? Historically, the aforementioned issues have been considered ancillary and were largely neglected in major materials design decisions. However, over the past 50 years, several events have forced these concerns into the spotlight. For example, in the 1970s, a small-scale uprising in Zaire (now the Congo) created a short-term supply shortage in cobalt as 40% of global production was mined in that geographic area. This caused massive spikes in the commodity price of cobalt, which resulted in speculation, government stockpiling, and massive disruption to firms in the semiconductor industry. Additionally, the introduction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its various policies (Toxic Substances Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc.) changed the way many materials could be used. For example, in light of new evidence as to its extremely high toxicity, substitution of lead became a priority in the 1980s for applications such as gasoline additives and paint pigments. However, because of the lack of substitutes in battery applications, lead use has increased overall. When considered together, these factors begin to form part of the larger picture that is materials criticality. Although it lacks a consistent definition throughout the literature, criticality is generally defined as a dynamic, multidimensional characteristic of materials, which describes the level of inherent vulnerability as well as the risk within their respective supply-chains. This special topic in JOM highlights some articles representing international, industrial, and academic perspectives on the complex and evolving issue of materials criticality. It is the hope that this issue will increase awareness and inspire further developments that help improve our collective understanding of criticality and its impact on the material science field. There will be a criticality plenary session at the upcoming TMS annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, and a future expanded special topic in the June issue of JOM (manuscript deadline of February 15, 2015). The most basic type of criticality research focuses on concerns over physical abundance or scarcity. Concerns over material availability, especially for emerging technologies, are not new and over the last 70 years have sparked debates as well as national policies aimed at securing critical materials. For example, the most recent Department of Defense Strategic and Critical Materials report per the Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpiling Act uses material consumption, production, and projected future demand to determine the severity of material criticality. Similarly, in previous literature the material availability is determined primarily by physical scarcity. Scarcity research calculates static metrics, such as depletion time (a measure of how long known reserves will last, given current levels of extraction); although it is informative and useful, it can provide only limited resolution of the real and complex issues at hand. In reality, criticality is a dynamic characteristic; however, dynamic approaches are challenging and therefore lacking in the literature. However, a few studies have been published in recent years employing dynamic material flow analysis and agent-based modeling. Expanding on physical scarcity is an approach first introduced by the National Research Council’s Gabrielle Gaustad is the guest editor for the Recycling and Environmental Technologies Committee, a joint committee of the TMS Extraction & Processing and the Light Metals divisions, and coordinator of the topic Critical Materials: Strategies for Achieving Sustainability in this issue. JOM, Vol. 66, No. 11, 2014

Due to the current and foreseen global growth of raw material demand, the sustainable supply of minerals and metals for high-tech applications, the so-called critical raw materials (Co, Cr, Ga, Nb, Rare Earth Elements, Sb, W, Platinum Group Elements), is of general concern. Industrial wastes have the potential to become an alternative source (flow) of strategic metals and, consequently, their valorisation can be seen as a move towards resources efficiency and circular economy. In this 3-years study I aimed to decipher the critical raw materials potential from solid residues produced by Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI), namely bottom and fly ashes. These solid residues, coming from different leading companies of MSWI in northern Italy, have been selected because they can be accounted for urban mining purposes and represent high elements flows, still poorly explored. In the present work I address the potential of MSWI solid residues as an alternative source of critical raw materials by studying the material chemistry, its resources flow and the evaluation of metals upgrading and recovery. Finally, I tackle some environmental and economic issues.

Critical raw materials (CRMs) will be a cornerstone of the energy transition. CRMs were recognized early by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a prime part of the mitigation effort for climate change and, as such, research into the genesis of key metals, as well as the sustainability of their mining, should be a priority. However, research is geopolitically influenced by the security of supply concerns of nations or economic groups of nations such as the EU, Japan, the USA and China. Many research networks and programmes are aimed at resource security; and where collaboration does exist it is along geopolitical lines, potentially disadvantaging developing countries and their efforts to implement UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). This contrasts with efforts in research such as those of the IPCC that are more collaborative and suited to rising to global challenges. We suggest that international organizations such as the International Union of Geological Sciences with its long international history, SDG focus and new focus on data (through the Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) programme) should be involved in research prioritization unhindered by geopolitical considerations. Like climate change, the challenge of CRMs is too big to tackle in a competitive, geopolitically influenced manner. Thematic collection: This article is part of the energy-critical metals for a low carbon transition collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/critical-metals

In the lab: New ethical and supply chain protocols for battery and solar alternative energy laboratory research policy and practice

Rare earth metals (REM) occupy a special and important place in our lives. This became especially noticeable during the rapid development of industry in the industrial era of the twentieth century. The tendency of development of the rare-earth metals market certainly remains in the XXI century. According to experts estimates the industry demand for chemical compounds based on them will tend to grow during the nearest years until it reaches the market balance. At the same time, the practical use of high-purity rare-earth metals requires the most accurate understanding of the physical properties of metals, especially magnetic ones. Despite a certain decline in interest in the study of high-purity REM single crystals during the last decade, a number of scientific groups (Ames Lab, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science Russian Academy of Science (RAS)) are still conducting high-purity studies on high-purity metal samples. The present article is a combination of a review work covering the analysis of the main works devoted to the study of heavy REMs from gadolinium to thulium, as well as original results obtained at MSU. The paper considers the electronic properties of metals in terms of calculating the density of states, analyzes the regularities of the magnetic phase diagrams of metals, gives the original dependences of the Neel temperature and tricritical temperatures for Gd, Tb, Dy, Er, Ho, Tm, and also introduces a phenomenological parameter that would serve as an indicator of the phase transformation in heavy REMs.

In the perspective of observing the latest worldwide and European strategies toward green transition and delivering a secured access to local resources, the objective of this study was to analyze the research progress on critical materials and, more specific, critical metals and review the future research hot-topics for critical metals. Consequently, a bibliometric analysis for the assessment of the current state of the art research, future trends as well as evolution through time of the critical metals research was performed in the present work. The study included four phases of work: (i) search string selection, (ii) data collection, (iii) data processing, and (iv) data interpretation. A total of 433 publications on critical metals were collected from Scopus database between 1977 and 2023, with an increasing yearly trend and a burst in 2013. The data retrieved showed a significant increase in publications related to the topic in the last 10 years. The results show that research interest is concentrated around six critical areas: (i) bioleaching as an important process of critical metal recovery, (ii) circular economy concepts and recovery of critical metals by urban mining from e-waste, (iii) resource recovery from waste landfills as urban mines, (iv) targeted studies on various critical elements (copper, zinc, gallium, silver, lithium), (v) rare elements as industry vitamins and, (vi) coal deposits and coal ashes as an alternative source of critical metals. This analysis could provide important guidance for further directions on the development of research for recovery of critical metals.

The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) of the U.S. Department of Energy funds early stage, high-reward/high-risk R&D on advanced transportation technologies to reduce the nation’s use of imported oil and reduce harmful emissions. A major objective is to enable the next generation of electric vehicle (EV) battery technologies to achieve the cost, range, and charging infrastructure necessary for wider adoption of EVs. VTO R&D has lowered the cost of EV battery packs to the value of $197/kWh (in 2018), which amounts to ~80% reduction since 2008. Yet even further cost reduction in high-energy batteries is necessary for EVs to achieve head-to-head cost competitiveness (without Federal subsidies). The three main challenges are further reducing battery costs (both initial and life cycle), eliminating dependence on critical materials, and developing safe batteries that can be charged in under 15 minutes. Accordingly, VTO strategic objectives for EV battery storage include reducing the cost of EV battery packs to under $150/kWh using technologies that significantly reduce or even eliminate dependency on critical materials (such as cobalt) and utilize recycled material feedstocks – while focusing R&D on material innovations, cell level electrochemical optimization, improved sustainability and reduced cost. In FY 2018, VTO battery R&D funding was approximately $110 million. The various batteries R&D program elements are described below. A combination of fast-charging batteries and a network of high capacity chargers can minimize customer range anxiety, promote EV market penetration, and increase the total electric miles driven. Research activities to understand/enable extreme fast charging (XFC) (i.e., charging an EV at a power rate of up to 400 kW) began in 2017. A national laboratory team (consisting of Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) engaged with industry stakeholders to obtain industry perspectives on fast charging issues. A number of XFC projects have recently started based on the findings. Current lithium-ion batteries contain a substantial amount of cobalt, a critical and expensive material requiring dependence on foreign sources. In 2018, VTO initiated substantial research to significantly reduce or eliminate cobalt from the lithium-ion battery. VTO sponsors research to develop recycling processes for extracting the materials therein. Recycling lithium-ion batteries can potentially meet one third of domestic cathode demands by 2025. The advanced cell and battery R&D activity focuses on the development of robust batteries to significantly reduce battery cost, increase life and performance. A large part of this effort occurs in close partnership with the automotive industry, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium. VTO also supports battery and material supplier R&D projects funded/administered via the National Energy Technology Laboratory – for increasing performance and reducing cost of lithium-ion batteries. There are also ongoing projects to enhance/validate predictive capabilities of computationally efficient electrochemical models for electrode designs and conducting new experiments to predict the behavior of batteries under abuse. The Advanced Battery Materials Research & Development activity addresses fundamental issues of materials and electrochemical interactions associated with rechargeable automotive batteries – developing new materials by using advanced material models, scientific diagnostic tools and techniques. Current projects include next generation lithium-ion battery R&D to advance material performances, designs, and processes by using an alloy or intermetallic anode and/or high-voltage cathode; and beyond Li-ion battery technologies which include solid-state, lithium metal, lithium sulfur, lithium air, and sodium-ion systems. In addition, VTO is funding the Battery500 Consortium which has the aggressive goal of developing a battery cell with a specific energy of 500Wh/kg.

This proceedings volume, published in phys. status solidi contains the research presented at the 2016 Spring European Materials Research Society Meeting in Lille, France, in the framework of the symposium E “Substitution of critical raw materials: synthesis, characterization and processing of new advanced materials in optoelectronic and magnetic devices”.The symposium, organized by the EIP commitment RESET, received 110 abstracts with 61 oral pre¬sentations from 26 different countries and represented one of the first scientific conferences on the theme of Critical Raw Materials in Europe.Raw materials are fundamental in most technological applications, however, the global increase demand and the geopolitical concentration of some of them, raised concerns about securing reliable access to raw material resources. In 2010 and, successively, in 2014 the EU commission created a list “Critical Raw Materials” on the prevision of the supply disruption foresees in the next 10 years and the economic and technological importance.Research is needed to improve the fundamental understanding of the development of new material solutions with a reduced or completely eliminated critical content, while maintaining or enhancing the performance of the materials, components and products.The design of the alternative compounds, the control of growth processes coupled with accurate characterization are mandatory for the further development of new CRM free devices.Among the different applications the research projects presented at the symposium were mainly focussed on modern lighting devices, transparent conductive layers, permanent magnetic materials and catalytic converters, providing an interdisciplinary platform on alternatives to CRM.We thank all invited and contributed participants for the high scientific level of presentation and, more in general, for the success of the symposium.

THE main working documents for an inspector are specifications and drawings. Among criticisms made at the Natural Rubber Producers' Research Association symposium last year, was that there are too many specifications and I think most of us would agree. However, I think we could improve this situation considerably as far as materials are concerned, if we accepted and really worked in accordance with the fundamental principle laid down in Av.P.970 Chap. 400. This can be summarised as: ‘Specifications for critical materials need approval by D.Mat/Aviation — non‐critical materials do not need such approval’. A rider is added to the effect that non‐critical materials do not need to be inspected to such tightly drawn specifications as critical materials and in some instances commercial quality materials may be used. If one can decide therefore, which materials are critical and which are not, and this is by no means easy, we can simplify inspection procedures and possibly reduce the number of specifications. Obviously critical applications will always call for special quality specifications but it is wasteful to use such materials where they are not necessary. One docs, however, notice a tendency among specification writers to over specify and to classify specifications too highly, i.e. to seek special approval when it is not necessary. It is our view that A.I.D. supervision should be concentrated on critical materials and components and that comparatively little effort should be devoted to non‐critical items, this being left to the purchaser who would probably order standard engineering materials or even commercial quality.