What’s Rare Earth Minerals – What Are Rare Earths Used For?

What are rare earth minerals? What are rare earths used for? Follow us to know the overview of rare earth minerals and their various applications.

How Many Rare Earth Elements Are There?

Éléments des terres rares are the general name of the Lanthanide Rare Earth Group, it contains 17 elements including scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu). The term “rare earth” has been used since the 18th century. Because of technical constraints, rare elements were hardly separated; the obtained oxide does not melt, neither insoluble in water, its appearance resembles “soil”, and is called a rare earth.

 

 

How Many Types of Rare Earth?

Les éléments de terres rares sont divisés en "éléments de terres rares légers" et "éléments de terres rares lourds" :
“Terre rare légère” refers to SC, Y, La, CE, PR, ND, PM, SM, EU with small atomic numbers.
“Éléments lourds de terres rares” refer to Gd, TB, Dy, Ho, Er, TM, Yb, and Lu with relatively large atomic numbers.

What Are Rare Earths Used For?

 

 

1. Lanthanum

Lanthane is widely used in piezoelectric materials, electrothermal materials, thermoelectric materials, magnetoresistance materials, luminescent materials, hydrogen storage materials, optical glass, laser materials, all kinds of alloy materials, etc. It is also used as a catalyst for the preparation of many organic chemical products and light conversion agricultural films.

2. Cerium

As a glass additive, cerium can absorb ultraviolet and infrared rays; it has been widely used in automobile glass. Not only can it prevent ultraviolet rays, but it can also reduce the temperature in the car, thus saving electricity for air conditioning.

Cerium is now being used as a catalyst for purifying automobile exhaust, effectively preventing a large amount of automobile exhaust from being released into the air. The United States accounts for a third of rare earth consumption in this application.

Cerium sulfide can replace lead, cadmium, and other metals harmful to the environment and human beings to be used in pigments.

Le cérium est utilisé dans un large éventail de domaines, y compris dans presque toutes les applications des terres rares. Il est notamment utilisé comme poudre de polissage, matériau thermoélectrique, électrode de tungstène au cérium, céramique piézoélectrique, catalyseur pour l'essence, acier allié et métal non ferreux, etc.

 

 

3. Praseodymium

Praseodymium is mainly used in glass, ceramics, and magnetic materials.
It is mixed with a ceramic glaze to make a colored glaze that has a pure, elegant color.

For making permanent magnets, using the cheap praseodymium-neodymium metal to replace the pure neodymium metal to make the permanent magnetic material, its anti-oxygen performance and mechanical performance are improved obviously, and can be processed into various shapes of magnets. Widely used in all kinds of electronic devices and motors.
C. Used for catalytic cracking of petroleum, abrasive polishing, optical fiber applications, and so on.

4. Neodymium

The largest user of the metal neodymium is the neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet material. The appearance of the Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet has injected new vitality and vigor into the field of rare-earth high-tech. Neodymium is also used in Non-ferrous metal materials. The addition of 1.5 ~ 2.5% neodymium to magnesium or aluminum alloys can improve the high-temperature properties, gas tightness, and corrosion resistance of the alloys, and is widely used as aerospace materials. In addition, neodymium also has a great influence on medicine, glass, ceramics, and rubber products.

5. Promethium

Promethium is an artificial radioactive element from a nuclear reactor. The primary uses of promethium are (1) as a heat source. To provide auxiliary power for vacuum detection and satellites. (2) PM 147 emits low-energy radiation to make promethium batteries.

 

 

6. Samarium

Samarium is the raw material for making samarium-cobalt permanent magnets. Samarium-cobalt magnets are the first rare-earth magnets to be used in the industry.

7. Europium

L'oxyde d'europium est principalement utilisé dans les luminophores.

8. Gadolinium

A. Son complexe paramagnétique soluble dans l'eau peut améliorer le signal d'imagerie par résonance magnétique du corps humain dans le domaine médical.
B. Its sulfur oxide can be used as the Matrix Grid of the Special Brightness Oscilloscope Tube and the X-ray screen.
C. Le gadolinium dans le grenat de gadolinium et de gallium est un substrat unique idéal pour la mémoire à bulles.
D. Without the limit of the Camot Cycle, it can be used as a solid-state magnetic cooling medium.
E. Utilisé comme inhibiteur de niveau de réaction en chaîne pour contrôler les centrales nucléaires afin de garantir la sécurité des réactions nucléaires.
F. Utilisé comme additif pour les aimants en samarium-cobalt afin de garantir que les propriétés ne changent pas avec la température. En outre, l'oxyde de gadolinium est utilisé avec le lanthane pour améliorer la stabilité thermique du verre.

9. Terbium

The terbium element is mainly used as an activator of green powder in fluorescent powder, magneto-optical storage material, magneto-optical glass, sonar, regulating mechanism of space telescope, aircraft wing regulator, and so on.

 

 

10. Dysprosium

Le dysprosium joue un rôle important dans de nombreux domaines de haute technologie, tels que les additifs pour les aimants permanents NdFeB, les activateurs de phosphore, les matériaux métalliques nécessaires pour les alliages Terfenol, les matériaux de stockage magnéto-optique, les absorbeurs de neutrons, etc.

11. Holmium

L'holmium est utilisé comme additif dans les lampes aux halogénures métalliques, dans le grenat d'yttrium-fer ou d'yttrium-aluminium, dans les communications par fibre optique et en médecine.

12. Erbium

Les propriétés optiques de l'erbium sont si exceptionnelles que les chercheurs lui ont accordé une grande attention. L'émission de lumière ER3 + à 1550 nm est particulièrement importante. Le développement rapide de la communication par fibre optique ouvrira de nouveaux champs d'application pour ER3 +.

 

 

13. Thulium

Thulium can be used as a radiation source for portable medical X-ray machines, and can also be applied in clinical diagnosis and treatment of tumors, reducing the radiation and harm of X-rays to humans, which has important practical significance in medical applications.

14. Ytterbium

A ytterbium-gadolinium gallium garnet embedded line waveguide laser has been successfully prepared by Japanese scholars, which is of great significance to the further development of laser technology. Ytterbium is also used as a phosphor activator, radio ceramic, computer memory element additive, glass fiber flux, and optical glass additive.

15. Lutetium

Le lutécium est principalement utilisé pour
A. Matières premières pour la mémoire à bulles.
B. Fabrication d'alliages spéciaux ;
C. Stable lutetium nuclide plays a catalytic role in petroleum cracking, alkylation, hydrogenation, and polymerization.
D. Utilisé comme ajout au grenat d'yttrium-fer ou d'yttrium-aluminium pour améliorer certaines propriétés.
E. Utilisé dans la technologie des cellules énergétiques et comme activateur de phosphore.
F. It has been found that lutetium has potential applications in electrochromic displays and low-dimensional molecular semiconductors.

 

 

16. Yttrium

L'ajout d'yttrium à l'acier et aux alliages non ferreux peut améliorer considérablement les performances. Les alliages contenant de l'yttrium avec une teneur élevée en yttrium (jusqu'à 90%) peuvent être utilisés dans l'aérospatiale et d'autres applications nécessitant une faible densité et un point de fusion élevé. En outre, l'yttrium est également utilisé comme matériau de revêtement résistant aux hautes températures, comme diluant pour le combustible des réacteurs nucléaires, comme additif pour les matériaux magnétiques permanents, et comme getter dans l'industrie électronique.

17. Scandium

In the electronics industry, scandium can be used as a semiconductor device, in the chemical industry, as an alcohol dehydrogenation and dehydrating agent, to produce ethylene, and to produce chlorine from waste hydrochloric acid. In the glass industry, it is possible to make special glasses containing scandium. In the electric light source industry, the sodium lamp made of scandium and sodium has the advantages of high efficiency and positive color. In medicine, 46Sc is used to treat cancer.

Rare Earth metals have been widely used in electronics, petrochemicals, metallurgy, machinery, energy, light industry, environmental protection, agriculture, and other fields. Rare Earth can be used to produce fluorescent materials, rare earth hydride battery materials, electric light source materials, permanent magnetic materials, hydrogen storage materials, catalytic materials, precision ceramic materials, laser materials, Superconductor classification materials, magnetostrictive materials, magnetic refrigeration materials, magneto-optical storage materials, optical fiber materials, etc.

Liens connexes :
Principales réserves minérales de terres rares par pays 2019

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