| Abstract Scope |
Since the discovery of the Nd2Fe14B permanent magnet material nearly forty years ago, innumerable technical applications for these magnets have arisen, including those important for clean energy technologies. Since 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Critical Materials Institute, has endeavored to discover and develop substitutes for these magnets employing, in particular, less of the ‘critical elements’ Neodymium and Dysprosium. The utility of these elements to clean energy far outstrips their representation in most rare earth ores, leading to the rare earth ‘balance problem’.
It is a materials science ‘Grand Challenge’ to develop a competitor to Nd2Fe14B magnets, likely employing non-critical, that offers largely equivalent performance (i.e. energy products of 40 MG-Oe) to that of Neo magnets. In this talk I will describe our recent efforts in the pursuit of this challenging goal and explain why I believe it to be feasible.
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