Rare Earths
Science, Technology, Production and Use

High-technology and environmental applications of the rare-earth elements (REE) have grown dramatically in diversity and importance over the past four decades. This book provides a scientific understanding of rare earth properties and uses, present and future. It also points the way to efficient recycle of the rare earths in end-of-use products and efficient use of rare earths in new products.

Scientists and students will appreciate the book's approach to the availability, structure and properties of rare earths and how they have led to myriad critical uses, present and future. Experts should buy this book to get an integrated picture of production and use (present and future) of rare earths and the science behind this picture. This book will prove valuable to.non-scientists as well in order to get an integrated picture of production and use of rare earths in the 21^st Century, and the science behind this picture.

1. Overview2. Rare Earth Production, Uses and Prices3. Rare Earths Mining and Concentrate Production4. Rare Earth Elements Extraction from Concentrates5. Rare Earths Purification, Separation and Precipitation and Calcination6. Production of Rare Earth Metals and Alloys – Electrowinning7. Metallothermic Rare Earth Metal Reduction8. Rare earths electronic structures and trends in properties9. Rare Earths based Catalysts10. Rare Earths in Rechargeable Batteries11. Rare Earths in Alloys and Metals12. Polishing with Rare Earth Oxides mainly cerium oxide CeO213. Permanent magnets based on Rare Earths: Fundamentals14. Rare Earths based Magnets: Fundamentals15. Rare Earths based Magnets: Preparation and Uses16. Rare Earths Luminescent Materials: Introduction17. Rare Earths Luminescent Materials: Applications18. Rare Earth doped Lasers and Optical Amplifiers19. Rare Earth Recycle20. Epilogue

The primary market for the book is scientists and engineers in industries that presently produce and/or use rare earths and those companies that plan to use rare earths in future critical rare earth devices. They are probably best represented by members of The Minerals, Metals and Material Society and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (and similar in other countries). The second primary market is universities, where it will be valuable to senior undergraduate science and engineering students and post-graduate students especially in the fields of materials science and engineering, chemical engineering and optical engineering etc. The book will also be read by government and industrial libraries around the world, particularly China, which is largest producer and consumer of rare earths.

Jacques Lucas is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and Emeritus Professor at the University of Rennes, France. He has co-authored several books on glasses, ceramics, and optics. He has been involved in rare earths research (photonics) as well as teaching for more than 40 years. He published more than 450 articles and co-chaired several international conferences devoted to rare earths doped optical materials. He founded and headed the CNRS Glass and Ceramic laboratory at University of Rennes for 30 years. Three start-up companies were founded based on the laboratory discoveries. He has also been Associate professor at University of Arizona and invited Professor at Kyoto University, Japan as well as at Shanghai University, PR China. He is in close contact with Solvay, the world leading company in rare earth separation, as well as with the Chinese and Japanese rare earth scientific community.

Pierre Lucas is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. He has led several funded research projects on rare-earth doped luminescent glasses. He has been temporarily employed as an analytical chemist at Rhodia’s rare-earth refining plant in France. He is author of more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in solid state physics and chemistry.

• Defines the chemical, physical and structural properties of rare earths.
• Gives the reader a basic understanding of what rare earths can do for us.
• Describes uses of each rare earth with chemical, physics, and structural explanations for the properties that underlie those uses.
• Allows the reader to understand how rare earths behave and why they are used in present applications and will be used in future applications.
• Explains to the reader where and how rare earths are found and produced and how they are best recycled to minimize environmental impact and energy and water consumption.