The Rare Earth Elements; These high tech enablers

This European Parliamentary meeting/webinar is part of a series where we focus on various aspects of individual chemical elements and is a result of our EuChemS Periodic Table highlighting element availability, vulnerability and sustainability.

The rare-earth elements (REE) are a group of 17 elements comprising the metals of group 3 of the periodic table (scandium and yttrium) and the 15 lanthanoides (lanthanum to lutetium). The term “rare-earth” is misleading, because these elements occur more frequently than their name would suggest. However, these elements are only found in a few economically viable sources ‐ primarily outside the EU. Therefore, REE are at the top of the EU’s list of critical raw materials.

Although often not recognized, REE materials are part of many high-tech devices and important gadgets for our daily life. They can be found, for example, in smartphones, televisions, computers, lasers, missiles, camera lenses, fluorescent light bulbs, catalytic converters, batteries, propulsion motors,magnets, and contrast agents to name only a few applications.

Objectives

The purpose of the webinar is to answer key questions such as:

• What is the impact of using REE on reserves, resources, geopolitics, and the environment? 
• How can REE recycling be improved and embedded in the circular economy? 
• What are the present and future applications of REE for optical devices, magnets, catalysts and devices for energy conversion?