This NSF award to the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa and the University of Delaware funds U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by the G8 Research Councils Initiative "Interdisciplinary Program on Material Efficiency - a first step towards sustainable manufacturing". This is a pilot collaboration among the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Canadian National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR),and the United Kingdom Research Councils (RCUK), supporting collaborative research projects selected on a competitive basis that are comprised of researchers from at least three of the partner countries.
This interdisciplinary project with the United States, Germany and Japan focuses the issues of scarce availability and high-cost materials in Permanent Magnets (PM) and to offer alternative solutions for these issues. The current high performance PM heavily depend on Rare-Earth elements (RE). The consortium aims to develop RE-free PM. Emphasis focuses on thin films and nano-particles of PM with (BH) max of about 25 MGOe as the first step. Such Permanent Magnets have the potential to make possible new applications such as magnetic MEMS and biomedical sensors. At the second stage, emphasis will be placed on the development from thin films and nanoparticles to powders and bulk Permanent Magnets. Also, the development of fabrication processes for production and recycling of the materials will be integrated with the aid of a non-funded industry expert. The goal is to build the knowledge to achieve (BH) max, comparable to that for NdFeB.
The consortium consists of six organizations from three countries. All the partner members have had rich experience on Permanent Magnets including the proposed Mn alloy systems. The consortium will work on RE free PM from fundamental materials issues, processing and manufacturing, and cost-effectiveness points of view. Also, emphasis will be placed on training students and post-doctoral fellows.
