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posted by janrinok on Thursday January 09, @11:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the this-time-we-invented-our-way-around-China dept.

Motor Trend is reporting on early production of a new permanent magnet material https://www.motortrend.com/features/niron-magnetics-clean-earth-permanent-magnets-ces-2025/ suitable for replacing the rare-earth magnets used, for example, in electric car motors, as well as loud speakers and many other products.

Invented some time back by university researchers and now in the pilot production stage (with suitably large investors like car companies),

Science has long known that a certain rare phase of iron nitride­­, known as an alpha-double-prime crystal structure of Fe16N2, holds extremely strong magnetic properties. But when produced by conventional means over the decades, the phase would degrade into more common, less magnetic phases. Then researchers at the University of Minnesota figured out a way to form this magic magnet material on a nano-scale using chemical vapor deposition or liquid phase epitaxy, and then developed a process for compacting and sintering nanoparticles of α″-Fe16N2 into magnets in the sizes and form factors allowing direct replacement of today's rare-earth permanent magnet motors.

Magnetic strength in the magnets used in electric motors is measured in tesla (where 1 tesla = 10,000 Gauss, for those more familiar with the unit used to measure Earth's magnetic pull). Weaker hard ferrite (iron-oxide) permanent magnets typically max out at around 0.35 tesla. The world's strongest permanent magnets made of neodymium measure around 1.4‑1.6 teslas. Niron's Clean Earth iron nitride permanent magnets peg the meter at 2.4 teslas. Niron Clean Earth magnets are also said to lose less magnetism over the typical operating temperature range than today's rare-earth permanent magnets.

Better yet: Niron's entire manufacturing process, from raw ore material to finished magnets, can be produced in a single factory on existing equipment, with 80 percent less CO2 and vastly less water usage, at a price that is currently on par with rare-earth magnets and utterly immune to price volatility due to supply chain and geopolitical forces.

Further icing on the cake: the iron is best sourced from iron salts that are a byproduct of steel manufacturing, with nitrogen sourced from ammonia. Produce that ammonia from air and water in a location that generates surplus solar or wind energy, and you get both clean nitrogen and a source of clean hydrogen that can help power the process.

One less thing to import from China...

For some perspective, here's a page on very high power research magnets (note, these are not permanent magnets as described above), https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/maglab-makes-magic-magnets

The 100 tesla pulsed magnet at MagLab's Los Alamos site produces the highest nondestructive magnetic field in the world. Higher-field magnets exist but can't withstand a field that high and explode after brief experiments. By pulsing the magnet in bursts that last 15 milliseconds, Los Alamos holds the world record for the highest field ever generated without blowing something up, enabling rare precision measurements.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RedGreen on Thursday January 09, @12:24PM (11 children)

    by RedGreen (888) on Thursday January 09, @12:24PM (#1388041)

    Sounds good the less we get from murdering slimy bastards the better it is. Time to start banning their ships traveling in our waters too or at the very least have some mysterious sinking of them. A cable gets cut, a ship ends up at the bottom of the ocean, that is what happens when countries perform acts of war against you. And they have long since crossed that line it is no longer competition they are engaged in...

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday January 09, @02:30PM (9 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 09, @02:30PM (#1388049) Journal

    Oh my god, every last one of us Americans would be dead if nations suffered consequences for unjustified acts of war against other nations.

    Be careful what you wish for.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Thursday January 09, @03:09PM (3 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 09, @03:09PM (#1388051) Journal

      Can it really be called unjustified if our glorious leaders thought there might somehow be profit in it?

      --
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      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday January 09, @04:53PM

        by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Thursday January 09, @04:53PM (#1388071) Homepage Journal

        Can it really be called unjustified if our glorious leaders thought there might somehow be profit in it?

        Not if you worship wealth. I realize that plutocracy is the most prevalent religion in the US and possibly the world, but not all of us are on board. Personally, I call it unjustified; especially what we did to the natives, Africans, and African descendants.

        It pains me that the president-elect's favorite president was Jackson, a murderous son of a bitch who killed innocents on the Trail of Tears. Plain evil, but the worship of money glorifies evil.

        Remember, your wealth ends when you end. There are no dead millionaires, only corpses that once were millionaires. I personally pity the wealthy, they have the most to lose when they leave this existence.

        --
        A man legally forbidden from possessing a firearm is in charge of America's nuclear arsenal. Have a nice day.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 09, @06:52PM (1 child)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday January 09, @06:52PM (#1388097)

        Profit for whom?

        Are we still in trickle-down world where more profit for Bezos means that he will open more warehouses for people to stand in and sort packages all day for little more than minimum wage? Is that the prosperity we are striving for?

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        • (Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Thursday January 09, @07:25PM

          by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 09, @07:25PM (#1388113) Journal

          The opinions of voters have no measurable effect on policy in the US. Profit of people who count.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RedGreen on Thursday January 09, @07:53PM (4 children)

      by RedGreen (888) on Thursday January 09, @07:53PM (#1388120)

      "Oh my god, every last one of us Americans"

      Well thankfully I am not an American and you are correct your country will be up to their eyeballs in it if we counted all the scummy things they have done in this regards. You incoming moron in chief seem hell bent on keeping that fine tradition up with all the countries he threatens to invade now before even taking office.

      --
      "I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09, @09:43PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09, @09:43PM (#1388141)

        You incoming moron in chief seem hell bent on keeping that fine tradition up with all the countries he threatens to invade now before even taking office.

        Well, at least he is entertaining in a different way (as a non US person I don't get to vote in US elections, I am just along for the ride).

        So far he's the only one I've seen with the "chutzpah" to telegraph in advance which countries he is going to bomb/invade/annex, and be bluntly honest about it to boot.

        The other presidents at least had the decency to wait to get into the drivers seat before they started their imperial conquests, and even then they would cover their deeds with euphemisms such as "humanitarian bombing", "bringing democracy" and other such platitudes.

        He reminds me a bit of Berlusconi, but with violence instead of sex, and with thousands of nukes at his disposal.

      • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday January 10, @01:45PM

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Friday January 10, @01:45PM (#1388246)

        I'm flabbergasted. Probably not serious all the way, talking his mind. Being the idiot he is, I believe he has no clue about what happened to despots with similar thoughts without exception in history. But he has an example before him in plain sight. How blind is he?

      • (Score: 2) by EJ on Friday January 10, @08:27PM (1 child)

        by EJ (2452) on Friday January 10, @08:27PM (#1388297)

        Alexander the Great didn't get that title by being a pacifist. It wasn't that long ago that conquest was considered the ultimate thing to be admired for.

        I imagine future historians may remember us as being weak and pathetic. It could go either way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        • (Score: 2) by RedGreen on Friday January 10, @11:41PM

          by RedGreen (888) on Friday January 10, @11:41PM (#1388331)

          "I imagine future historians may remember us as being weak and pathetic."

          That is my description of the chicken shit spineless Democrats basically forever now for everything they let the Repugnant Party get away with is unbelievable. It is well north of fifty years they have let them get away with it and those idiots have the actual facts on their side to prove their point. The Repugnant Party just plain make it up and run with it, while the Democrats do jack shit to call them out for the traitorous lying bastards they are..

          --
          "I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 09, @06:51PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday January 09, @06:51PM (#1388096)

    Sounds too good to be true, for now.

    Get the production running at scale and tell me the true cost and performance.

    2.4T in a permanent magnet could also be revolutionary for strip-mall based MRI clinics.

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