Rare Earth Elements used in green energy, smartphones, hybrid cars

Specific Rare Earth Metals and Applications

Cerium

Technological applications:

- Cerium oxide used as a catalytic converter for the reduction of CO emissions in vehicle exhaust, particularly diesel engines

- Cerium oxide is a petroleum cracking catalyst in petroleum refining, resulting in reduced energy usage

- Cerium oxide is considered a very efficient agent for optical component precision polishing of optical components

. Cerium oxides, and other cerium compounds, go into catalytic converters and larger-scale equipment to reduce the sulfur oxide emissions. Cerium is a diesel fuel additive for micro-filtration of pollutants, and promotes more complete fuel combustion for more energy efficiency.


Dyprosium

- Cost has risen from under $7 a pound in 2006 to over $130 per pound in 2011

- Dysprosium is used, in conjunction with vanadium and other elements, in making laser materials

- Dysprosium's high thermal neutron absorption cross-section allows dysprosium oxide-nickel cermets to be used in neutron-absorbing control rods in nuclear reactors

- Dysprosium-cadmium chalcogenides are sources of infrared radiation which is useful for studying chemical reactions

- Dysprosium and its compounds are highly susceptible to magnetization, so are employed in data storage applications, such as hard disks


Erbium

- Silvery-white solid metal when artificially isolated, natural erbium is always found in chemical combination with other elements on Earth

Erbium is a rare earth element which is associated with several other rare elements in the mineral gadolinite from Ytterby in Sweden

- Erbium is often utilized as a photographic filter, and because of its resilience it is useful as a metallurgical additive

- Erbium is used in medical applications including laser surgery


Europium

Europium is not found in nature as a free element, and has no known biological role. It is a by-product of nuclear fission, and is used in television sets, lasers, fluorescent lamps and in medical tests for Down's Syndrome and other genetic illnesses.

Europium's use in fluorescent lighting is significant, as it can reduce power usage by 75% relative to traditional incandescent lighting. In the medical field, europium is used to tag complex biochemical agents, helping to trace these materials during tissue research.


Gadolinium

- Gadoliium is used in Rare-earth magnets, high refractive index glass or garnets, lasers, x-ray tubes, computer memories, neutron capture, as a MRI contrast agent, and as a NMR relaxation agent.


Lanthanum

- Lanthanum is most often found in the mineral bastnasite, and is extracted through a method known as solvent extraction

- Lanthanum is a strategically important REE due to its activity in catalysts that are critical in petroleum refining. Lanthanum additives, called "cracking-agents", increase refinery yield by as much as 10%, and at the same time reduce overall refinery energy consumption.


Lutetium

- Lutetium is named for Lutetia, the ancient city which later became Paris, Lutetium is used in PET Scan detectors, and high refractive index glass


Neodymium

– Used for magnets in hybrid cars including Prius, Insight, LEAF, Focus, pretty much EVERY hybrid car model available. Also used in the Dyson Vacuum's magnets.

- Neodymium is a critical component of strong permanent magnets

- Neodynium is used extensively in Cell phones, portable CD players, computers and most modern sound systems

- Neodynium magnets are used in a large variety of motors and mechanical systems


Praseodymium

- Praseodymium comprises about 4% of the lanthanide content of bastnasite, but is used as a common coloring pigment

- Along with neodymium, praseodymium is used to filter certain wavelengths of light. So praseodymium finds specific uses in photographic filters, airport signal lenses, welder's glasses, as well as broad uses in ceramic tile and glass (usually yellow).

- When used in an alloy, praseodymium is a component of permanent magnet systems designed for small motors. Praseodymium also has applications in internal combustion engines, as a catalyst for pollution control.

Samarium

- Though classified as a rare earth element, samarium is the 40th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and is more common than such metals as tin

- Samarium occurs with concentration up to 2.8% in several minerals including cerite, gadolinite, samarskite, monazite and bastnäsite, the last two being the most common commercial sources of the element. These minerals are mostly found in China, the USA, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Australia; China is by far the world leader in samarium mining and production.

-An important application of samarium is samarium-cobalt magnets, which have a nominal composition of SmCo5 or Sm2Co17. They have high permanent magnetization, which is about 10,000 times that of iron and is second only to that of neodymium magnets. However, samarium-based magnets have higher resistance to demagnetization, as they are stable to temperatures above 700 °C (cf. 300–400 °C for neodymium magnets). These magnets are found in small motors, headphones, high-end magnetic pickups for guitars and related musical instruments.[8] For example, they are used in the motors of a solar-powered electric aircraft Solar Challenger and in the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless electric guitar and bass pickups.

- Samarium and its compounds are utilized as catalyst and chemical reagent. Samarium catalysts assist decomposition of plastics, dechlorination of pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as the dehydration and dehydrogenation of ethanol.

- Samarium triflate (Sm(OTf)3, that is Sm(CF3SO3)3) is one of the most efficient Lewis acid catalysts for a halogen-promoted Friedel–Crafts reaction with alkenes.

- Samarium iodide is a very common reducing and coupling agent in organic synthesis, for example in the desulfonylation reactions; annulation; Danishefsky, Kuwajima, Mukaiyama and Holton Taxol total syntheses;strychnine total synthesis; Barbier reaction and other reductions with samarium(II) iodide.



Yttrium

- Rare in bastnasite, it is usually recovered from even more obscure minerals and ores. Still, almost every vehicle on the road contains yttriumbased materials that improve the fuel efficiency of the engine. Another important use of yttrium is in microwave communication devices. Yttrium- Iron-Garnets (YIG) are used as resonators in frequency meters, magnetic field measurement devices, tunable transistors and Gunn oscillators. Yttrium goes into laser crystals specific to spectral characteristics for high-performance communication systems.

Yttrium (Y) is most commonly found in association with Heavy Rare Earth Elements deposits.


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