UD wins $4.4 million to develop next-generati...(rrently in existence. This is the f...)

"This is the first time that such a large concerted effort will be undertaken in the U.S. on the development of high-energy magnets that involves the best expertise available in our country on this type of materials," Hadjipanayis said.

An article in the Sept. 11, 2009, edition of the journal Science reported that the demand for Nd-Fe-B magnets is growing at about 15 percent per year, for use in products ranging from magnetic resonance imaging machines, to cell phones, headphones, and even prototype magnetic refrigerators. Yet neodymium (Nd), which is a member of the rare earth metals on the periodic table of the elements, is growing increasingly scarce.

The UD-led team will explore three different routes over the three-year project, Hadjipanayis said. The first route will be to discover new materials in tertiary rare earth-transition metal-element X systems that have not yet been explored due to synthesis difficulties such as vapor pressure, high reactivity, toxicity, or their refractory nature. The second route will be to develop materials that are free of rare earth metals and stabilized by the addition of small non-magnetic atoms (Fe-Co-X); and the third route will be to use the bottom-up approach to develop high-energy nanocomposite materials consisting of a uniform and nanoscale mixture of high anisotropy hard (Nd-Fe-B) and high magnetization soft (Fe) magnetic phases.

"We hope our efforts will provide the fundamental innovations and breakthroughs which could have a major impact in re-establishing the United States as a leader in the science, technology, and commercialization of this very important class of materials," Hadjipanayis said.

More than 3,600 concept papers were received in response to the first ARPA-E solicitation, from which the U.S. Department of Energy requested 300 full applications and ultimately selected 37 based on rigorous review and evaluation.

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