Powerful Pull To New Magnets

Abstract

If necessity is the mother of invention, science and technology must be due soon to give birth to new materials and methods for making powerful permanent magnets. The magnets are crucial to an enormous number of products in the automobile, electronics, power-generation, and clean-energy industries. But worldwide, it has been difficult to secure the supply of neodymium, dysprosium, and other rare-earth metals in these powerful magnets, which are stronger yet much smaller than those made with other materials. Recently rare-earth metal prices have fluctuated wildly. In 2010, many publications, including this one, reported on China’s global monopoly on production of rare-earth metals and oxides and the country’s plans to drastically cut exports ( C&EN, Aug. 30, 2010, page 9). The news caused demand for and prices of these materials, especially of dysprosium, one of the scarcest rare-earth metals, to soar. But then other market factors caused prices to fall sharply. ...