[HN Gopher] Niron Magnetics - powerful, rare earth-free permanen...
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Niron Magnetics - powerful, rare earth-free permanent magnets
Author : telotortium
Score : 58 points
Date : 2023-01-12 19:53 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nironmagnetics.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nironmagnetics.com)
| telotortium wrote:
| Discovered via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34356851. See
| also https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-
| magne...
| dsr_ wrote:
| 2010: https://phys.org/news/2010-03-iron-nitrogen-compound-
| stronge...
|
| Attributes work to "A group of materials physicists from Twin
| Cities, Minnesota, led by Jian-Ping Wang have found a material
| comprising 16 iron atoms and two of nitrogen is approximately 18%
| more magnetic than the predicted limit."
|
| Wang is the CEO of Niron (Nitrogen-Iron)
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| I might be getting old, but if there is no "buy now" button on
| the webpage, i just assume it's vaporware...
| dsr_ wrote:
| I'm guessing that they've spent the last 13 years figuring out
| a production process, then raising money to make them rather
| than selling out to another company.
| 83 wrote:
| I hear you. Batteries, magnets, and motors seem especially
| prone to this type of page where it constantly says "will
| enable", "will produce", and experts who "will help" this
| technology come to fruition.
|
| At this point I consider it spam unless it says "has enabled",
| "have produced", or gives some already achieved numbers.
| [deleted]
| gavin_gee wrote:
| now this is potentially revolutionary!
|
| Can anyone share more about the raw input ingredients to make
| these?
| loktarogar wrote:
| The site says they're made from Iron Nitride
| ortusdux wrote:
| Iron and nitrogen. And the production methods look to be quite
| simple and scalable. I agree, this could be revolutionary.
|
| https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magne...
|
| https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160141082A1/en
| at_a_remove wrote:
| Neodymium magnets can get to around 13,000 gauss. Digging about,
| Niron Magnetics is aiming for 9,000 gauss for the first
| generation at 15,000 gauss for the second generation, so these
| _should_ be comparable.
|
| Expanded temperature range. If they're even slightly less brittle
| than the notoriously frangible neodymium magnets, the second
| generation ought to _clobber_ them.
|
| Curious to know what, if any, drawbacks would exist.
| mintysoap wrote:
| Interesting, but seems that this still has a long way to go. The
| highest maximum energy product they've been able to achieve is 20
| MGOe in thin foils, compared to approx 40 for NdFeB. But, at
| least might work out being a cheaper and more environmentally
| friendly alternative to SmCo.
|
| https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/219403
| nimish wrote:
| The cost reductions alone would be staggering. Iron and
| nitrogen are incredibly cheap
| sparrish wrote:
| I'm not familiar with the production process but it seems like
| these could be made from nearly 100% recycled materials. That
| would be huge.
| ortusdux wrote:
| "Alternatively, iron oxide can be mixed with ammonium nitrate
| in a planetary ball mill; after a few days of milling at 600
| rpm, the stainless steel balls decompose the ammonium nitrate
| into elemental nitrogen, which diffuses into the iron
| nanoparticles. The resulting a"-Fe16N2 is then separated by
| magnet and can be formed into solid shapes."
|
| Literally just rust and fertilizer.
| RandomLensman wrote:
| Where does all the oxygen from the iron oxide and the nitrate
| go? How is the iron oxide reduced to iron during the milling?
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| You do have to be very careful if you start piling up
| ammonium nitrate on an industrial scale:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disas.
| ..
|
| I'm not sure I'd want to stand next to a ball mill grinding
| up ammonium nitrate, myself.
| roughly wrote:
| In fairness, the big question about the current sourcing of
| rare-earth materials is whether it'll cause similar
| problems at some point. At least in this method the
| explosions mostly happen at the site of production, as
| opposed to, say, in the Taiwan Strait.
| buildbot wrote:
| Plus the iron powder which I am pretty sure would start
| burning too...
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| Hmm... maybe. It would depend on what stage of the
| process. Sounds like it starts with iron oxide, which
| wouldn't burn per se. But it also sounds like the iron
| oxide is reduced to iron nanoparticles with dissolved
| nitrogen in the process. Those would probably burn well,
| and even if they didn't, you might wind up with a bunch
| of molten iron, thermite-style. That wouldn't be good,
| either.
| [deleted]
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(page generated 2023-01-12 23:00 UTC)