AsianScientist (Nov. 26, 2015) – Researchers have made the first low-cost and completely rare-earth free high-quality Fe-Ni (Iron-Nickel) magnet, at Japan’s Tohoku University. The achievement, made by utilizing high atomic diffusivity at low temperatures, paves the way for new energy saving devices, according to the report published in Science Reports.
Magnets are important components of cars, appliances, medical equipment and many other devices.
The innovation is significant because today’s high quality magnets are made of rare earth elements that are difficult to obtain, such as Sm (samarium), Nd (neodymium) and Dy (dysprosium). This may help address the increasing demand for energy-saving technologies.
It had been widely-known in the 1960s that small amounts of Fe-Ni magnets are included in natural meteorites (in an extreme equilibrium state) produced in the universe at an extremely slow cooling period of billions of years. But it had been impossible to replicate the magnets artificially in a short time due to extremely slow diffusion rate of elements around the formation temperature.
The research group, led by Professor Akihiro Makino of Tohoku University, produced the magnet by utilizing high atomic diffusivity at low temperatures, when crystallizing from an amorphous state. This reduced the formation of the magnet from billions of years to a few days.
The article can be found at: Makino et al. (2015) Artificially Produced Rare-earth Free Cosmic Magnet.
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Source: Tohoku University.
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