Dysprosium-Aluminum Diffusion Cuts Dy Use by More Than Half in NdFeB Magnets

Highlights

• DyAl evaporation source achieved 18.12 kOe coercivity using only 0.37 wt.% Dy versus 0.86 wt.% with pure Dy—a 2.25x efficiency gain.
• Dysprosium concentrated along grain boundaries rather than grain interiors, maximizing demagnetization resistance with minimal heavy rare earth input.
• Research used commercial N52 NdFeB magnets and electron-probe microanalysis to map Dy migration under vacuum evaporation grain-boundary diffusion.
• If scalable, the technique could stretch scarce dysprosium supplies across more EV motors and aerospace applications without sacrificing magnet performance.
• Study is a journal pre-proof; industrial-scale throughput, cost, and long-term performance validation remain outstanding.