Introduction to the Application of Rare Earths
Rare earth elements are known as "industrial vitamins", with irreplaceable excellent magnetic, optical and electrical properties, to improve product performance, increase product variety, improve production efficiency has played a huge role. Because of the large role of rare earths, the use of small, has become an important element to improve product structure, improve scientific and technological content, promote technological progress in the industry, has been widely used in metallurgy, military, petrochemical, glass ceramics, agriculture and new materials and other fields.
Metallurgical industry
Rare earth sons and nuns have been used in the field of metallurgy for more than 30 years, and have formed more mature technology and technology, rare earths in steel, non-ferrous metals, is a large area, has broad prospects. Rare earth metals or fluoride, silicate added to steel, can play the role of refining, desulfurization, medium and low melting point harmful impurities, and can improve the processing performance of steel; It is widely used in automobile, tractor, diesel engine and other machinery manufacturing industry, rare earth metal added to magnesium, aluminum, copper, zinc, nickel and other non-ferrous alloys, can improve the physical and chemical properties of alloys, and improve the room temperature and high temperature mechanical properties of alloys.
Because rare earths have excellent physical properties such as optical and electromagnetic, they can make up new materials with different properties and wide variety of other materials, which can greatly improve the quality and performance of other products. Therefore, there is the name of "industrial gold". First of all, the addition of rare earths can greatly improve the use of tanks, aircraft, missiles, steel, aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, titanium alloy tactical performance. In addition, rare earths can also be used as electronics, lasers, nuclear industry, superconducting and many other high-tech lubricants. Rare earth technology, once used in the military, will inevitably bring about a leap in military science and technology. In a sense, the U.S. military's overwhelming control of the post-Cold War local wars, as well as its ability to kill the enemy in an unbridled and public manner, is due to its rare earth technology superhuman class.
Petrochemicals
Rare earths can be used in the petrochemical field to make molecular sieve catalysts, with high activity, good selectivity, strong resistance to heavy metal poisoning and other advantages, thus replacing aluminum silicate catalysts for petroleum catalytic cracking process; Its treatment gas volume is 1.5 times larger than the nickel aluminum catalyst, in the process of synthesis of shunbutyl rubber and isoprene rubber, the use of cyclane acid rare earth - three isobutyl aluminum catalyst, obtained the product performance is good, with less equipment hanging glue, stable operation, short after-treatment process and other advantages; and so on.
Glass ceramics
The application volume of rare earths in China's glass and ceramic industry has been increasing at an average rate of 25% since 1988, reaching about 1600 tons in 1998, and rare earth glass ceramics are not only the traditional basic materials of industry and life, but also the main members of the high-tech field. Rare earth oxides or processed rare earth concentrates can be used as polishing powders widely used in optical glass, spectacle lenses, imaging tubes, oscilloscopetubes, flat glass, plastic and metal tableware polishing; In order to remove the green color from the glass, the addition of rare earth oxides can produce different uses of optical glass and special glass, including through infrared, uv-absorbing glass, acid and heat-resistant glass, X-ray-proof glass, etc., in ceramic and enamel to add rare earths, can reduce the cracking of the glaze, And can make products show different colors and luster, is widely used in the ceramic industry.
Agriculture
The results show that rare earth elements can improve the chlorophyll content of plants, enhance photosynthesis, promote root development, and increase nutrient absorption of the root system. Rare earths can also promote seed germination, increase seed germination rate, and promote seedling growth. In addition to the above major roles, but also has the ability to make certain crops to enhance resistance to disease, cold, drought resistance. A large number of studies have also shown that the use of appropriate concentrations of rare earth elements can promote the absorption, conversion and utilization of nutrients in plants. Spraying rare earths can improve the Vc content, total sugar content and sugar-acid ratio of apple and citrus fruits, and promote fruit coloring and precociousness. It can inhibit the breathing strength during storage and reduce the rate of decay.
New materials
Rare earth ferrite boron permanent magnet material, with high residual magnetism, high orthopaedic force and high magnetic energy accumulation and other characteristics, is widely used in the electronics and aerospace industry and drive wind turbines (especially suitable for offshore power generation plants); - Aluminum garnets and niobium glass made from high purity zirconium can be used as solid laser materials; rare earth boroncans can be used to make cathodic materials emitted electronically; niobium nickel metal is a newly developed hydrogen storage material in the 1970s; and chromic acid is a high temperature thermoelectric material At present, the superconducting materials made of niobium-based oxides with the improvement of niobium-based oxygen elements in the world can obtain superconductors in the liquid nitrogen temperature zone, which makes a breakthrough in the development of superconducting materials. In addition, rare earths are also widely used in light sources such as phosphors, enhanced screen phosphors, tri-color phosphors, photocopied light powders (but because of the higher cost of rare earth prices, so the application of lighting gradually decreased), projection television tablets and other electronic products; It can increase its output by 5 to 10%, in the textile industry, rare earth chloride is also widely used in tanning fur, fur dyeing, wool dyeing and carpet dyeing, and rare earths can be used in automotive catalytic converters to reduce the main pollutants in the engine exhaust gas into non-toxic compounds.
Other applications
Rare earth elements are also used in a variety of digital products including audio-visual, photography, communications and a variety of digital equipment, to meet the product smaller, faster, lighter, longer use time, energy saving and many other requirements. At the same time, it has also been applied to green energy, medical care, water purification, transportation and other fields.