Dealing With The Dysprosium Problem
Hello everyone - I thought that it was about time I made my first blog post here, and a recent article on work on the use of dysprosium [Dy] in rare earth permanent magnets [REPMs], undertaken at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences in Austria, finally prompted me to write.
As evidenced both here at the Rare Metal Blog and elsewhere, folks are starting to pick up on some of the more nuanced issues that face projected increases in use of REPMs, for applications in renewable energy production, and in hybrid and electric vehicles, beyond the more usual focus on "All the ore is in China - what are we to do??" type discussions.
These days, most REPMs based on neodymium [Nd], which are required to work at the relatively high operating temperatures to be found in "under-the-hood" applications, contain small quantities of Dy in order to maintain coercivity - the ability of the magnet to resist being demagnetized. The problem is that the ratio of Dy:Nd used in these magnets, is significantly higher than the ratio that typically occurs naturally in the raw ore materials.
This means that Dy, or the relative lack thereof, is a potential Achilles heel for further growth in the use of Nd-based REPMs in hybrid and electric vehicles, and other higher temperature application. That is, unless REPMs can be developed that reduce that Dy:Nd ratio to something more similar to that which occurs naturally in the raw materials. The work at St. Pölten tries to address this very task.
To read the University's press release on the work, click here.
