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?

Elementos de terras raras 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?

Os elementos de terras raras dividem-se em "elementos de terras raras leves" e "elementos de terras raras pesados":
“Terras raras leves” refers to SC, Y, La, CE, PR, ND, PM, SM, EU with small atomic numbers.
“Elementos pesados de terras raras” refer to Gd, TB, Dy, Ho, Er, TM, Yb, and Lu with relatively large atomic numbers.

What Are Rare Earths Used For?

 

 

1. Lanthanum

Lantânio 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.

O cério é utilizado numa vasta gama de domínios, incluindo quase todas as aplicações de terras raras. Tal como pó de polimento, material termoelétrico, elétrodo de tungsténio de cério, cerâmica piezoeléctrica, catalisador de gasolina, ligas de aço e metais não ferrosos, 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

O óxido de európio é utilizado principalmente em fósforos.

8. Gadolinium

A. O seu complexo paramagnético solúvel em água pode melhorar o sinal de imagem por ressonância magnética do corpo humano no domínio médico.
B. Its sulfur oxide can be used as the Matrix Grid of the Special Brightness Oscilloscope Tube and the X-ray screen.
C. O gadolínio no granada de gálio é um substrato único ideal para a memória de bolhas.
D. Without the limit of the Camot Cycle, it can be used as a solid-state magnetic cooling medium.
E. Utilizado como inibidor do nível de reação em cadeia para controlar as centrais nucleares, a fim de garantir a segurança das reacções nucleares.
F. Utilizado como aditivo para ímanes de samário-cobalto para garantir que as propriedades não se alteram com a temperatura. Além disso, o óxido de gadolínio é utilizado com o lantânio para melhorar a estabilidade térmica do vidro.

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

O disprósio desempenha um papel importante em muitos domínios de alta tecnologia, tais como aditivos para ímanes permanentes NdFeB, activadores de fósforo, materiais metálicos necessários para ligas de terfenol, materiais de armazenamento magneto-ótico, absorventes de neutrões, etc.

11. Holmium

O hólmio é utilizado como aditivo em lâmpadas de halogenetos metálicos, em granadas de ítrio-ferro ou ítrio-alumínio, em comunicações por fibra ótica e em medicina.

12. Erbium

As propriedades ópticas do érbio são tão notáveis que os investigadores têm-lhe prestado muita atenção. A emissão de luz do ER3+ a 1550nm é de especial importância. O rápido desenvolvimento das comunicações por fibra ótica abrirá novos campos de aplicação para o 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

O lutécio é utilizado principalmente para
A. Matérias-primas para a memória de bolhas.
B. Produção de algumas ligas especiais;
C. Stable lutetium nuclide plays a catalytic role in petroleum cracking, alkylation, hydrogenation, and polymerization.
D. Utilizado como adição à granada de ítrio-ferro ou à granada de ítrio-alumínio para melhorar algumas propriedades.
E. Utilizado na tecnologia das células energéticas e como ativador do fósforo.
F. It has been found that lutetium has potential applications in electrochromic displays and low-dimensional molecular semiconductors.

 

 

16. Yttrium

A adição de ítrio ao aço e às ligas não ferrosas pode melhorar significativamente o desempenho. As ligas que contêm ítrio com um elevado teor de ítrio, até 90%, podem ser utilizadas na indústria aeroespacial e noutras aplicações que exijam baixa densidade e elevado ponto de fusão. Além disso, o ítrio é também utilizado como material de revestimento resistente a altas temperaturas, como diluente para combustível de reactores nucleares, como aditivo para materiais magnéticos permanentes e como getter na indústria eletrónica.

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.

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