SBIR Phase I: Synthesis of Nanoscale Rare Earth Magnetic Powders

*Pirzada 9760415这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种具有成本效益的工艺来生产稀土磁性材料的超细粉末。稀土材料已迅速成为价值数十亿美元的行业必不可少的基础材料，预计这一市场将继续快速增长。现有的生产稀土磁粉的工艺存在固有的局限性，在保持成分纯度、球形和单分散性的同时，将粉末的尺寸限制在几微米以上。这反过来又限制了目前可以实现的最大MGOe(百万高斯奥斯德)和小型化。在第一阶段项目中，提议人将建立一个过程的概念验证，该过程可能有助于推出比目前可用的粉末精细一个数量级的粉末。未来的努力将寻求优化技术，并从纳米材料生产原型，以供客户资格验证，并将该技术商业化。潜在的商业应用包括用于电子、信息和电信行业的小型化和更高能量的产品磁体。衍生应用将服务于使用稀土合金的广泛行业。***

*** Pirzada 9760415 This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a cost-effective process to produce ultrafine powders of rare earth magnetic materials. Rare earth materials have rapidly become the basis of essential components for billion dollar industries and this market is predicted to continue to grow rapidly. Existing processes for producing rare earth magnet powders have inherent limitations that limit the powder size reduction beyond a few microns while maintaining compositional purity, spherical shape, and monodispersity. This in turn limits the maximum MGOe (million gauss oesteds) and miniaturization currently achievable. During the Phase I project, the proposer will establish the proof-of-concept of a process that may help launch powders that are an order of magnitude finer than presently available. Future efforts will seek to optimize the technology and produce prototypes from nanoscale materials for customer qualification and commercialize the technology. Potential commercial applications include miniaturized and higher energy product magnets for the electronics, information, and telecommunications industries. Spin-off applications will serve a wide range of industries using rare earth alloys. ***