Dysprosium
This element is included in the US’s list of critical minerals.
It is prized for use in the control rods of nuclear reactors and for use in compounds that change their shape when magnetised (i.e. magnetostrictives), especially Terfenol-D.
Catalytic converters
It come in two types and are useful to convert the more noxious gases emitted by internal combustion engines to less harmful compounds.
Their function usually involves platinum, palladium, and/or rhodium.
Neodymium
Glasses that include an oxide of this element seem blue under fluorescent light and pink under incandescent light.
Glasses doped with the element make for lasers that emit infrared light.
Some of its alloys are among the most powerful permanent magnets known.
Samarium
In 1879, a Russian mine official named Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets became the first person to have an element named after them.
Among the element’s various applications is in a drug called Quadramet, which treats the pain due to cancer in bones.
Nickel
When preparing the iron-carbon alloy known as steel, the addition of different quantities of other elements can confer additional virtues to the final material.
For example, adding at least 8% by content of nickel, a critical mineral, renders the steel resistant to corrosion.
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