the.com/dysprosium
the rare earth that lets electric motors stay cool while spinning fury at 200 degrees.
means A soft, silvery rare-earth metal (element 66) prized for keeping its magnetism at high temperatures, which makes it essential in the powerful magnets inside electric-vehicle motors and wind turbines.
from From the Greek 'dysprositos,' meaning 'hard to get at' — and the chemists who first isolated it in the late 19th century meant it: the element hid stubbornly among other rare earths and took dozens of painstaking separation attempts to coax out. They named it after the struggle itself.
- Greek name
- means hard to get at, no kidding
- Magnet hero
- keeps EV and wind magnets from demagnetizing
- Cold reflexes
- expands or shrinks sharply with temperature shifts
- China grip
- dominates supply, making it a geopolitical pawn
- Glows neutron
- absorbs them well, used in nuclear control rods
dysprosium-165 — stable isotope making up 28.2% of naturally occurring dysprosium on earth
molycorp mountain pass mine — california rare earth mine that produced significant dysprosium until closure in 2015
baiyun obo mine — world's largest rare earth deposit in inner mongolia, china, major source of dysprosium since 1957