The family of rare earths are 15 elements from the lanthanide family, plus scandium and yttrium, which are closely related to the lanthanide family, for a total of 17 elements.
They are: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium. One of the most important functions is permanent magnetism, neodymium (Nd).
The biggest user of neodymium metal is the NdFeB permanent magnet material. The introduction of NdFeB permanent magnets has injected new life and vitality into the field of rare earth high technology. NdFeB magnets are called "king of permanent magnets" and are widely used in electronics and machinery industries for their excellent performance. Rare-earth permanent magnet material is a kind of magnetic material made by sintering samarium and neodymium mixed rare-earth metals with transition metals, and then sintered by powder metallurgy method and magnetized by magnetic field. As a kind of high performance functional material, rare earth permanent magnet material is widely used in energy, transportation, machinery, medical, IT, home appliances and other fields, and has become the basis of many high-tech industries. And NdFeB rare earth permanent magnet material has become the fastest growing and most industrialized industry because of its high performance to price ratio.
Firstly, rare earth permanent magnet materials are widely used in magnetic motors, disk drives, computer hard drives, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and the electric power industry, where there is a huge demand for strong magnetic materials.
Secondly, rare-earth permanent magnet materials are also used in medical devices, chemical industry, aerospace and defense. In the field of medical equipment, rare earth permanent magnet materials are commonly used in magnetic resonance imaging systems, electronic paramagnetic resonance equipment, etc. In the chemical industry, rare earth permanent magnetic materials can be used for magnetic separation in the process of separation, filtration, concentration, extraction, etc. In the field of aerospace and defense, rare earth permanent magnetic materials can be used in flight control and navigation systems in missiles and aircraft, etc.
In short, rare earth permanent magnetic materials have excellent magnetic properties and thermal stability, and are widely used in various fields. With the continuous development of technology, the application prospect of rare earth permanent magnetic materials will become more and more extensive.
Rare earth resources are very scarce, and only in recent years the country has gradually paid attention to it and controlled the export amount of rare earths.