Recycling of Rare Earth Magnets with Sulfur Based Chemistries and High Temperature Processing

Rare-earth(RE)-iron-boron permanent magnets are among the strongest permanent magnets available and power essential technologies, from wind turbines to hard disk drives. The production of the rare earth metal for these magnets currently involves significant greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Additionally, the production of these metals is geographically complicated, as over 95% of rare earth metals are produced in China, which leads to supply-chain concerns and price fluctuations. Recycling of the rare earth elements is imperative to decrease net emissions and for the sustainability of RE-based magnets, but current magnet recycling is limited. In this work, sulfidation is investigated in the context of RE separation and recovery from RE-based magnets. Evidence of rare-earth separation and selectivity are presented, with insights into the underlying sulfidation mechanism involved for actual magnet processing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Adams, Zachary Kenneth

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Allanore, Antoine

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155352

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/155352