The Future of Magnets

The future of magnets is something we care a lot about. In the 1980s, neodymium became the go-to element for magnets. Mined primarily from China, neodymium revolutionized mechanical equipment such as engine motors. However, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have recently discovered something to turn the magnet community (That’s us!) on its head. But first let’s do a little refresher on the basics.

Neodymium Magnets

These little powerhouses are permanent, rare earth magnets and are currently the strongest, commercially available magnets on the market. They have even replaced many other magnets in household appliances that require strong permanent magnets such as cordless tools and hard disk drives. The new magnet discovered by the folks at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a more efficient alternative to traditional samarium and even neodymium magnet. The new magnet actually stems from the samarium and cobalt magnet, substituting much of the cobalt for nickel and iron.

The Future of Magnets

While removing the weaknesses of the samarium cobalt magnets, the new magnet still preserves its high temperature efficiency. However, subbing out all of that cobalt for iron makes the ordinary hexagonal phase thermodynamically unstable due to the larger magnetic moment of the iron. Luckily, researchers were able to bypass this issue by adding a bit of nickel. Lawrence Livermore is confident their magnet has the potential to replace both neodymium and samarium magnets. This discovery also means a cheaper production cost as the price of cobalt has nearly doubled in the last year while iron is abundant and inexpensive. We’re very excited to see where the researchers of Lawrence Livermore go next. Since they’ve recently filed a patent on their research surrounding their new magnet discovery, we imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more from them regarding this subject. To keep up-to-date on this and other magnet-related findings, follow along on our blog and check out our online catalog for the latest products.