REEx Brief: Hydrogen Unlocks the Next Generation of Rare Earth Magnets

Highlights

• Researchers propose hydrogen decrepitation (HD) as a transformative thermal process for manufacturing and recycling rare-earth element magnets.
• HD uses hydrogen to produce fine powders with minimal oxidation, resulting in improved magnetic efficiency and longer lifespans.
• The study advocates for integrating digital twins and AI-guided thermal modeling to accelerate materials innovation and sustainability.

A new proceedings paper by Thomas Wingens (opens in a new tab) (Wingens Consultants) and Michael Glazoff (opens in a new tab) (Idaho National Laboratory) argues that the future of advanced neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets—the backbone of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and precision defense systems—depends on reengineering the use of heat and hydrogen in production. The authors identify hydrogen decrepitation (HD) as the most transformative thermal process for both manufacturing and recycling rare earth element (REE) magnets.

Unlike traditional mechanical grinding, HD uses hydrogen to break coarse magnet alloys into fine powders with minimal oxidation and precisely controlled particle size. These powders form superior feedstock for low-oxygen sintering and grain boundary diffusion, leading to greater coercivity, thermal stability, and microstructural uniformity—key for high-performance applications. The study demonstrates that optimizing variables such as hydrogen pressure, alloy chemistry, and temperature profiles can yield magnets with both higher efficiency and longer lifespans.

Beyond the furnace, the authors call for a paradigm shift toward digital twins and AI-guided thermal modeling, emphasizing that computational design will soon rival or surpass experimental trial-and-error in magnet innovation. Integrating hydrogen-based thermal processes with advanced modeling, they argue, will accelerate discovery of new materials and processing routes while reducing cost, energy use, and waste.

In short, this research highlights hydrogen—not just as a fuel, but as a precision-engineering tool essential for the next leap in magnet performance and sustainability.

Authors: Thomas Wingens and Michael Glazoff,

Source: Proceedings of HT 2025, Paper No. HT2025P0189, ASM International (October 2025)

DOI: 10.31399/asm.cp.ht2025p0189 (opens in a new tab)

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