The technology to create the world's first non-rare earth permanent magnet has been developed by domestic researchers, and expectations are high that this will reduce the dependence on rare earth magnets in the future and create high economic value in the industry.

The research team of Park Ji-hoon and Kim Jong-woo of the Nanomaterials Research Center of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has developed a technology to manufacture next-generation non-rare earth Mn-Bi (manganese-bismuth) permanent magnets that demonstrate world-class performance.

The research team is currently in the process of transferring the technology to magnet manufacturing company Novatech Co., Ltd., and through this, secured the possibility of commercializing the world's first non-rare earth-based Mn-Bi magnet.

The current permanent magnet industry uses rare earth elements such as Nd (neodymium) as its main material.

On the other hand, because the supply of rare earth elements is unstable and price volatility is high depending on changes in China's policies, there has been an urgent need to develop high-performance technologies that can replace rare earth elements.

Accordingly, non-rare earth Mn-Bi has been attracting attention as an alternative material, but its commercialization has been limited due to difficulty in maintaining purity due to oxidation and phase decomposition during the sintering process.

To address these limitations, the research team developed high-purity single-crystal Mn-Bi powder at low temperatures and designed a new low-temperature sintering technology to increase the density by more than 95%.

This It has been proven to be the world's best by stably implementing a maximum magnetic energy of 10.5 MGOe.

In addition, magnetism is maintained even after sintering and mass production is possible without oxidation, securing commercial-level quality.

This technology can be widely applied to various industries, including electric vehicle motors, generators, and semiconductor components.

In particular, it is expected to create high economic value in real life and industry by making it possible to manufacture motors using existing ferrite magnets smaller and more efficiently.

“Through this research, we have secured the possibility that Korea will become the first country in the world to commercialize Mn-Bi permanent magnets,” said Principal Researcher Park Ji-hoon. “If this technology is successfully commercialized, it will greatly help reduce our dependence on rare earth magnets and help domestic companies become competitive in the global market.”