Faculty Research Seminar Explores Climate Change and High-Performance Magnets

On January 10, 2025, the Irving Institute hosted its monthly Research Seminar Series, featuring two insightful presentations. Associate Professor Marisa Palucis from the Department of Earth Sciences introduced faculty, staff, and postdocs to research projects that her team is leading on climate change and landscape evolution. Following her, Professor Ian Baker from the Thayer School of Engineering shared his cutting-edge research on high-performance magnets.

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Understanding Climate-Driven Landscape Changes in the Arctic

Palucis' research focuses on how rapid warming in the Canadian Arctic and increasing annual precipitation are triggering significant landscape changes. These shifts impact soil temperature, moisture levels, and water drainage channels, leading to cascading effects on erosion patterns, soil fertility, vegetation, and landslides—including a particular type of landslide, retrogressive thaw slumps, which are unique to the Arctic's permafrost regions.

Through detailed investigations of water tracks, retrogressive thaw slumps, and erosion rates, her team aims to discern the extent to which climate change is actively reshaping the landscape—or whether existing conditions have primed it for transformation—and the implications of landscape changes for carbon dioxide release to the atmosphere.

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The Science and Challenges of High-Performance Magnets

Baker then provided a fascinating look into his research on high-performance magnets, which are essential for both engines and electricity. Magnets enable the conversion between mechanical and electrical energy, making them indispensable in technologies ranging from electric motors and wind turbines to household appliances and industrial machinery.

Baker began with a brief history of permanent magnets, explaining that their development is relatively recent. The first permanent magnets were made in the 1920s using steel alloys, but today, the most powerful magnets consist of Neodymium (Nd), Iron (Fe), and Boron (B) (NdFeB). While iron is abundant, neodymium and boron are rare earth elements, posing two major challenges:

1. Environmental Impact – Rare earth mining is often highly damaging to the environment.
2. Geopolitical Dependency – Currently, 95% of the world's NdFeB magnets are produced in China,
   raising concerns about global supply chain reliance.

Engineering Alternative Magnets

Developing high-performance alternatives to NdFeB magnets is challenging. A viable substitute must meet several engineering criteria, including:

• High-temperature resistance (many alternative materials break down under heat)
• Accessibility and affordability (materials must be widely available and cost-effective)
   

Two promising elements, Aluminum (Al) and Manganese (Mn), can be combined to form magnets. However, these materials tend to degrade at high temperatures, limiting their usefulness in many applications.

Baker's lab is actively working to enhance Mn-Al permanent magnets through an advanced manufacturing technique known as Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). LPBF is an additive manufacturing process that uses a high-powered laser to selectively melt and fuse metal or polymer powders layer by layer, allowing for precise engineering and minimal material waste.

While Mn-Al magnets are unlikely to replace NdFeB magnets in electric vehicles anytime soon, they are cost-competitive for U.S. manufacturing and hold promise for other applications where high-temperature stability is less critical.

Join Us! Our next Faculty Research Seminar will be on February 14, 2025, from 12-1PM. Thayer Professor Klaus Keller and Microbiology & Immunology Professor George O'Toole will present their current work. We encourage Alumni, Faculty, Postdocs, staff, and graduate students to attend.