Highlights

• China is building strategic dominance through rare earth R&D and patents in:
  • Recycling
  • Solid-state batteries
  • Advanced solar
  • Thermoelectrics
  • Quantum materials
• Breakthrough research includes:
  • Magnetic zeolite 'sponges' that recycle magnet waste into high-grade feedstock
  • Lanthanum-based solid-state battery electrolytes
  • Samarium-doped perovskite solar cells hitting 24.66% efficiency
• Even if the West funds new mines, owning the upstream IP for enabling chemistry and manufacturing processes keeps strategic dependency firmly in China's control.

China is quietly wiring the future of rare earths not just through mines and refineries, but through R&D and patents. The Shanghai Rare Earth Association continues to spotlight (opens in a new tab) clusters of ACS-published studies that show where Beijing thinks the next decade of value will be created: recycling, solid-state batteries, advanced solar, thermoelectrics, and quantum materials. For Rare Earth Exchanges readers, this could represent a roadmap for tomorrow’s demand—and tomorrow’s dependency.

Researchers first report a magnetic zeolite “sponge” built entirely from waste: Bayan Obo tailings and coal gangue. By tuning roasting and hydrothermal conditions, theysynthesize NaA zeolite that selectively pulls neodymium and praseodymiumout of Nd–Fe–B electroplating wastewater. The material hits saturated loadings of 350 mg/g (Nd³⁺) and 156 mg/g (Pr³⁺), maintains over 89% efficiency after five cycles, and preferentially adsorbs REEs over toxic Cr³⁺. In plain English: China is learning to turn magnet-plant effluent and mine waste into a high-grade secondary rare earth feedstock—closing the loop and lowering its marginal cost of magnet supply.

A second paper drills into lanthanum oxychloride (LaOCl) solid solutions as halide-ion conductors for next-generation solid-state batteries. By engineering chloride vacancies and using X-ray excited optical luminescence as a defect “radar,” the team ties vacancy concentration directly to anion conductivity, achieving on the order of 10⁻⁵ S/cm at 300 °C. The work doesn’t just produce a promising ceramic electrolyte candidate—it delivers a powerful diagnostic toolkit for defect tuning in rare-earth-based energymaterials.

On the energy-conversion front, Chinese researchers demonstrate samarium-doped hybrid perovskite solar cells where Sm³⁺ partially substitutes Pb²⁺. At around 5% Sm³⁺, devices hit 24.66% power-conversion efficiency and retain ≥90% of that output after 1,000 hours in humid air, unencapsulated. That’s a serious push toward bankable perovskites built on lanthanide chemistry—linking rare earths not just to EV motors, but to rooftop and utility-scale solar.

Finally, two structure–property studies push rare earths into the thermoelectric and quantum materials arena.

In AgErTe₂, researchers show a perfectly ordered crystal with glass-like ultralow thermal conductivity, driven by hidden local distortions, Ag off-centering, and “rattling” phonon modes—a blueprint for rare-earth thermoelectrics and thermal-barrier coatings without alloying. In Cu-intercalated CuYbSe₂, they track a temperature-driven structural transition near 258 K with Cu-vacancy ordering and a frustrated triangular rare-earth lattice, a platform for exotic magnetism and unconventional transport.

Why does REEx track this? Because this is how China seeks to own the upstream IP behind magnet recycling, solid-state batteries, high-efficiency solar, heat-management materials, and quantum devices. Mines can be funded in the West—but if the enabling chemistry and patents sit in Shanghai and Baotou, strategic dependency simply moves one rung down the value chain.

Disclaimer: This news originates from media linked to Chinese state-owned or state-affiliated entities. All information should be independently verified.

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