Research Highlights

Development of permanent magnets using low cost mischmetal

CMI research at Ames Laboratory used high-throughput (HiTp) synthesis and rapid characterization to identify permanent magnet alloy compositions with decreased critical material content, and was accepted for publication in ACS Combinatorial Science.

Functionalizing magnet additive manufacturing systems with in-situ magnetic field source

CMI technical publication on functionalizing permanent magnet additive manufacturing systems with a magnetic field source. The field source was modeled, designed, prototyped and tested on an existing table-top commercial 3D printer.

Complex oscillatory decrease with size in the diffusivity of epitaxially-supported 3D metal nanoclusters

Theoretical analysis reveals a complex oscillatory decay in the diffusivity of {100}-epitaxially supported fcc metal nanoclusters (NCs) with increasing size. NCs have a 3D structure for weak adhesion to oxide or other supports.
Results contrast traditional assumptions of monotonic decay with increasing size.

Catalytic Carbon–Oxygen Bond Cleavage

The oxophilicity of lanthanide complexes is leveraged for catalytic C–O cleavage via hydroboration. The proposed mechanism indicates that the reactive La-H is protected and activated as borate adduct, yielding high catalytic rates and turnover numbers.

Al-Ce alloys designated by Aluminum Association

CMI developed alloys that have passed key commercial milestone, and have been accorded official designations by The Aluminum Association, opening the door to global industrial applications

Ce-based gap magnets match high-temperature performance of neo

CMI research at Ames Laboratory Achievement showed that at certain temperatures a cerium-based magnet matches the energy product of and exceeds the coercivity of neodymium permanent magnets

Additive manufacturing NdFeB bonded magnets reach the gap magnet milestone

High-performance critical-element-free permanent magnets

CMI research at Ames Laboratory demonstrated that mechanochemical preprocessing is beneficial for nitrogen insertion/topotactic extraction

Lower-cost commercial grade Ce enhances performance and reduces cost in gap magnets

CMI research with lower-cost commercial grade cerium enhances performance and reduces cost in gap magnets. Also, the less costly “dirty” cerium samples showed as much as a 5% increase of both coercivity and magnetization, resulting in better energy product. 

CMI research on cover of journal: Sustainable urban mining of critical elements from magnet and electronic wastes

Journal publication on the acid-free leaching process for recycling rare-earth elements and cobalt from waste magnet and e-waste materials is published and highlighted as a supplementary cover in ACS high impact journal