The project aims for discovery and further development of a new permanent magnet materials that will compete with the current technologies, i.e., neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets and/or samarium-cobalt (SmCo) magnets, whereas being significantly less expensive and utilizing only minimal amounts (10 - 15 wt.%) of critical metals like neodymium (Nd), dysprosium (Dy), Sm and Co. This is a science-based approach of looking for new, undiscovered, critical rare-earth poor, iron-rich binary, ternary and higher compounds and/or new or unappreciated ferromagnets containing abundant and non-critical elements. The benefit of such a discovery is deployment of magnets that can substitute for today’s supply-chain dependent, critical rare-earth based magnets.
Ames National Laboratory produced this video about Gap Magnets, where CMI project lead Andriy Palasyuk describes collaboration and research in permanent magnets. This CMI technology won a 2023 R&D 100 Award.