Rare earth elements are indispensable for high-tech development such as new energy and new materials, and have a wide range of application value in aerospace, national defense and military industries. The results of modern war show that rare earth weapons dominate the battle, rare earth technology advantage represents military technology advantage, and the possession of resources is guaranteed.

Therefore, rare earth has also become a strategic resource contested by the world's major economies, and the strategy of key raw materials such as rare earth often rises to a national strategy. Countries and regions such as Europe, Japan and the United States pay more attention to key materials such as rare earth, and in 2008, rare earth materials were listed as "key materials strategy" by the US Department of Energy; In early 2010, the European Union announced the establishment of rare earth strategic reserves; In 2007, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Economy and Industry have put forward the "element strategic plan" and the "rare metal alternative materials" plan, and they have taken continuous measures and policies in terms of resource reserves, technological progress, resource acquisition, and alternative materials search.

Dysprosium: In 1886, the French Lecog de Boisbaudran recrystallized holmium oxide found in 1879 thousands of times to obtain a new rare earth element, which was named Dysprosium. The rare earth element samarium was also discovered by the French scientist in 1879. The name dysprosodos comes from the Greek word dysprosodos, meaning "difficult to access" or "hard to get", indicating the difficulty of the rare earth element separation and discovery process.

The abundance of dysprosium in the earth's crust is 6ppm, which is only lower than yttrium in the heavy rare earth, which is a relatively rich heavy rare earth element, providing a good resource base for its application. In addition to the chemical activity common to rare earth elements, dysprosium can be used as a hybrid rare earth metal and compound, but also has excellent optical, electrical, magnetic and nuclear properties, can be used to manufacture a variety of functional materials, and plays an increasingly important unique role in many high-tech fields.

Applications of dysprosium - Dysprosium is used in permanent magnets

Dysprosium is used as an additive to improve the coercivity of Ndfeb permanent magnet materials. Coercivity is an important parameter to measure the properties of permanent magnet materials. The higher the coercivity of a magnet, the less easy to demagnetize, the longer the service life. The main market for dysprosium-containing Ndfeb magnets is alternative energy vehicles, and these magnets can also be found in other high temperature motors and generators, commercial and industrial generators, including wind turbines, electric bicycles and energy storage systems, magnetic levitation train systems, meters, relays and switches, magnetic separation tools, sensors, and more. Magnetic refrigeration units for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well as a variety of other applications.

Neodymium iron boron magnets (NdFeB) containing 3% to 6% (by weight) dysprosium can be applied in specific, especially high temperature environments. This magnetic iron is essential for all hybrid and electric vehicles, as this magnet can remain stable over a certain temperature range and has a weight reduction of up to 90%. In view of this situation, the demand for dysprosium in permanent magnets will account for 90% of total dysprosium consumption. At this stage abroad due to the export restrictions of China's rare earth strategic resources, despite efforts to reduce the amount of dysprosium used in high-temperature permanent magnets, it is still a component of about 80 tons of Ndfeb magnets produced globally each year.

According to the European Commission's study of materials required for key energy technologies, dysprosium demand will double by 2020, increasing by an average of 9% per year. According to Magnetics magazine.com, global sales of permanent magnets are expected to grow from about $15 billion in 2012 to more than $28 billion in 2019. Due to strategic reasons, in recent years, dysprosium-free high temperature magnet materials have been developed in important application areas of dysprosium, but dysprosium is still a strategic resource in a short time, and is also an important material in the field of national defense competition.