Pukyong National University

Development of new magnetic material to replace rare earth elements
The thesis by prof. Hwang Jae-Yeol's team of PKNU, posted on stablemate of <Nature Communications>

The research results that developed a new magnetic material that can be applied to the magnetic substance, which is an essential material of the modern industry, are attracting public attention.

Hwang Jae-yeol, who is a professor of Physics department in Pukyong National University, recently announced on March 31 about his thesis worked together with the professor Kim Sung-wung of Energy Science department in Sungkyunkwan University that it was successful in synthesizing the first magnetic material with a ferromagnetic property and revealing the principle of implementing magnetism.

Magnetic substances are essential materials used in modern industries such as hard disks, generators, and electric motors. Rare earth elements having excellent magnetic properties are mainly used for production of magnetic materials, and the necessity of developing a magnet material that can replace these rare earth elements due to problems such as high price and unstable supply has been continuously raised.

In this study, Professor Hwang's team developed a two-dimensional electride magnet material (Gd2C) in which electrons manifest ferromagnetic properties through strong interaction with surrounding positive ion between layers.

At the same time, he succeeded in identifying the existence of interstitial anionic electrons (IAEs) between lattice framework, which have exotic magnetic moments, independently located in empty spaces between layers in a two-dimensional layered structure.
 
This study is evaluated as having great physical meaning since it suggests a new magnetic realization principle is proposed in which interstitial anion electrons between layers have their own magnetic moments and generate magnetic properties through interaction with surrounding atoms in contrast to the general principle of having magnetism by the existing rare earth elements.

Professor Hwang said, "It is expected that the use of presenting principle of the new magnetic property in the electride material proposed in this study will reduce the use of expensive rare earth elements required for the synthesis of magnetic materials, and also enable the development of next-generation magnetic materials and physical properties made of low-cost elements.”

Meanwhile, the thesis ‘Ferromagnetic quasi-atomic electrons in two-dimensional electride’, which contains the results of this research, was posted in an international journal <Nature Communications> on March 23, which is a stablemate of Nature magazine. <Pukyong Today>


△ Conceptual image of Electride magnet material