High Performance Magnets

High-performance cerium-based permanent magnet materials have been developed to reduce reliance on scarce rare-earth elements. These magnets, featuring zirconium and cobalt, achieve significant magnetic anisotropy and high magnetic moments, making them potentially competitive with current state-of-the-art magnets, with potential energy products approaching 40 MG-Oe. Applications include electric vehicles, wind turbines, and electronics.

Description

The new class of permanent magnet materials is designed to address the scarcity and high cost of rare-earth elements like neodymium and samarium used in conventional magnets. These cerium-based magnets incorporate zirconium and iron with cobalt, resulting in high-performance alloys. This composition ensures high magnetic anisotropy and strong magnetic moments.

• One formulation optimizes magnetic properties while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
• Other variations include partial substitution of copper for iron and adjustments in cerium and zirconium ratios.
• Another variant focuses on balancing the cobalt and iron content for improved performance.

The cerium in these alloys is typically in a trivalent state (Ce³⁺). The materials also allow for the inclusion of hafnium, titanium, and tungsten as partial substitutes for zirconium. The addition of TiC in amounts up to 4% by weight further enhances the magnetic properties. Cerium in this material mimics the role of neodymium in NdFeB magnets, by providing magnetic anisotropy, but at greatly reduced cost and criticality.

Benefits

• Cost-effective: Utilizes abundant and inexpensive cerium instead of scarce rare-earth elements.
• High performance: Maintains or exceeds the magnetic properties of current rare-earth-based magnets.
• Versatile formulations: Various compositions allow for tailored magnetic properties for specific applications.
• Sustainable: Reduces dependency on environmentally and economically challenging rare-earth mining.

Applications and Industries

• Electric vehicles (EVs): Motors and generators in hybrid and fully electric cars.
• Wind turbines: Efficient generators for renewable energy production.
• Electronics: Hard disk drives and other computer hardware.
• General power generation: Various applications in energy conversion and storage.

Contact

To learn more about this technology, email partnerships@ornl.gov or call 865-574-1051.