In the petrochemical industry: molecular sieve catalysts made of rare earths have the advantages of high activity, good selectivity and strong resistance to heavy metal poisoning, thus replacing aluminum silicate catalysts used in the catalytic cracking process of petroleum; in the process of ammonia synthesis, with a small amount of nitric acid rare earths as co-catalysts, which handles a gas volume of 1.5 times greater than that of nickel-aluminum catalysts; in the synthesis of cis-butyl rubber and isoamyl rubber process, the use of naphthenic acid rare earths - isoamyl rubber.
In the process of synthesizing male-butadiene rubber and isoprene rubber, using rare earth naphthenate - tri-isobutylaluminum type catalyst, the obtained product performance is excellent, with less equipment hanging rubber, stable operation, short post-processing procedures, etc.; composite rare earth oxides can be used as a catalyst for purifying the exhaust gas of the combustion engine, and cerium naphthenate can be used as a paint drying agent, etc..
In glass and ceramics: rare earth oxides or processed rare earth concentrates, can be widely used as polishing powder for optical glass, spectacle lenses, picture tubes, oscilloscope tubes, flat glass, plastics and metal tableware polishing; in the process of melting glass, cerium dioxide can be used to have a strong oxidizing effect on the iron to reduce the iron content of the glass, in order to achieve the purpose of removing the green of the glass; adding Rare earth oxides can be made for different purposes of optical glass and special glass, including the ability to pass infrared rays, ultraviolet absorption of glass, acid and heat-resistant glass, anti-X-ray glass, etc.; in ceramic glaze and porcelain glaze with the addition of rare earths, you can reduce the glaze of the crumbling, and can make the products show different colors and luster, is widely used in the ceramic industry.
In the new materials: rare earth cobalt and neodymium, iron, boron permanent magnetic materials, with high remanence, high coercivity and high magnetic energy product, is widely used in the electronics and aerospace industries; pure rare earth oxides and ferric oxide composite garnet-type ferrite monocrystalline and polycrystalline, can be used in the microwave and electronics industries; with high purity neodymium oxide yttrium aluminum garnet and neodymium glass, can be used as a solid-state laser material; rare earth hexaboride can be used to make electronic emission. Boride can be used to make cathode materials for electron emission; lanthanum nickel metal is a newly developed hydrogen storage materials in the 70's; lanthanum chromate is a high temperature thermoelectric materials; in recent years, the world's countries use barium yttrium copper oxide elements to improve the barium-based oxides produced by superconducting materials, superconductors can be obtained in the temperature region of liquid nitrogen, so that the development of superconducting materials has made breakthrough progress.
In addition, rare earths are also widely used in lighting light source, projection TV phosphor, sense-enhancing screen phosphor, three-color phosphor, copying lamp powder; in agriculture, the application of trace amounts of rare earth nitrate to field crops, can increase its yield by 5 to 10%; in the textile industry, rare earth chloride is also widely used in tanning fur, fur dyeing, wool dyeing and carpet dyeing and other aspects. Then look at the distribution of rare earths in the world. Now you don't need me to tell you why China is stopping Japan's massive acquisition of waste glass. As well as restricting the export of rare earths.