Rare Earth Metals (REMs) in My Life

One of the greatest (and most slept on) problems of the 21st Century is the dearth of rare earth metals (REMs) around the world, with much of it being concentrated in countries like China.

First, it makes sense to talk about what the REMs are. From a purely scientific standpoint, REMs are a group of 17 elements (the lanthanides and couple of other elements). As is typical with scientific names, the rare earth metals are not even that rare, with the majority of the trouble in finding high enough concentrations in the earth to make mining financially feasible. Ever since the emergence of the Information Age during the 21st Century (a.k.a. the Computer Age), REMs have been having an increasing impact on the world, with REMs being one of the main components of several important hi-tech products. Things like high-power magnets in our speakers that use neodymium, screens on smartphones that use yttrium, and catalytic converters that run the cars that we regularly drive that rely on cerium all ensure that we are constantly in contact with the life-altering REMs.

I first became interested in REMs in my chemistry class, where we watched a video about REMs and how much of an impact they are having in our development into the Information Age. They also touched upon how China is one of the leading producers of rare earth metals. In fact, recent estimates state that 95% of all rare earth minerals mined in the world come from China. The video talked about how China was cutting off the supply of rare earth metals to countries like Japan as a result of political differences, like control over the highly important South China Sea. As a result, the United States has looked into finding areas that they could mine their own rare earth elements to get reduce the impact of China’s current monopoly.

The rare earth minerals, such as machining molybdenum and tungsten heavy alloy, are at a junction between science and economics, two of the fields that are most interesting to me to explore during my college because of their clear impacts on our lives. Science dictates everything we see in the world, from the sun and the stars that are immensely large to the subatomic particles and quarks that are on the smallest levels of matter. Additionally, through economics, I would be able to understand not only things about money, but the nature of capitalism and the way that our world operates. Rare Earth minerals are important because they connect these two fields.

Rare earth minerals will have clear, positive impacts on people. For one, with greater technological development and innovations, we can expect better technology and products in order to make our world function better. Additionally, because the United States is looking for ways to produce and mine rare earth elements, it will create jobs in the future, both in the mining and refinement industry, as well as in material science/engineering jobs to increase efficiency. These will surely impact my life as I look towards my future college major and career.
For more information, please visit http://www.samaterials.com/

My Ceramics World

There was a method to the madness that was Jackson Pollock’s vast paintings. Through the lines, dots, and dribbles of paint, there always seemed to be meaning and deliberation blended into his crazed splatters. Every time I see one of his paintings, I see the genius that hides beneath the surface, almost visible, undeniable but also a bit unfathomable all at the same time. It was that feeling of wanting to understand why I felt the emotions I did, awe and curiosity as well as fascination, that drew me into art and have never let my mind stray far.
Art has always played a major role in my life. From the time I was young, I watched my father sketch random objects and watched beautifully animated cartoons. But it was the summer before fifth grade that my mother enrolled me, pottery classes, that art started to play a central role in my focus and has helped shaped my college and career choices.

There is a special feeling about how the clay tends to glide in my hands while I am on the wheel. There is a method for how to create bigger pieces and old wives tales on how to avoid S-shaped cracks along the bottom of the pot. There are rumors about how to wedge the clay to get it softer and an endless debate on how to raku fire pieces without causing them to fall apart due to temperature differences.
And although I followed the advice I got to a T, I really wondered how many of the things I was doing really had a solid impact on pieces. There were so many ways to get the optimal piece, but on the scientific side of things, the general answer was very vague. Trial and error dominated and if it worked, it worked. So when I got to college, I gravitated to what I knew in hopes to bridge the gap in my knowledge. Almost immediately when I got into college, I found the specialized field of materials and now am currently am studying material sciences and engineering and researching in phosphorescence ceramic materials.
Phosphorescence ceramic powders are powders made of ceramic compounds that glow when exposed to UV light. These powders can glow over and over again with losing much intensity. This means that they can be charged up with UV light from a source like sun and glow for long periods of time, and this process can be done over and over again. This makes them appealing because they don’t need electricity to make them glow. This could mean that in outages, these powders can be interlaced in many materials such as glass and road pavement which then can glow a help guide in emergency situations.
The problem with these powders is that nature poses many challenges. In my research, the main focus is on making them water resistant. The most prevalent natural degradation is water because the particles tend hydrate with water and lose the ability to glow. Coating such powders in aluminum and titanium allow them to retain their glow and be waterproof. My research hopes to coat these powders in aluminum oxide or titanium oxide in hopes that they don’t hydrate when exposed to water via ALD, or atomic layer deposition.
Before I got my research position, I was looking into other research in my department and was also interested in the development of boron carbide body armor. This lightweight and extremely dense body armor shatters bullets on impact and is used in armor plating on tanks as well as bullet-proof vests. These examples of advanced ceramics slowly mold my career path and I hope to pursue something in structural-functional materials.
Ceramics, including silicon nitride bearings and lanthanum hexaboride, have touched my lives in more ways than just the pottery I make. In my free time, I still teach pottery. As a teach beginners of all levels and revel in the progress that my students make, I also find myself starting to learn the background and unique properties that have influenced my life in so many ways.
For more information, please visit http://www.samaterials.com/