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New class of strong magnets uses earth-abundant elements, avoids rare-earth metals (phys.org)

submitted 5 days ago by RegularJoe@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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"—a breakthrough that could significantly advance clean energy technologies and consumer electronics such as motors, robotics, MRI machines, data storage and smart phones."

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

From that image it appears that this magnet is formed from a crystal of manganese, iron, cobalt, and nickel, which weirdly are all direct neighbors on the periodic table.

What's with that? Is this a crystal thing? Like are similarly sized atoms more stable in a lattice? I'm no chemist, but this strikes me as interesting, or at least weird

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Like are similarly sized atoms more stable in a lattice?

Actually yes. That’s why you can’t arbitrarily add random elements into a crystal (well you can a little bit). If the geometries vary too greatly you introduce stresses into the lattice.