Recently, a unique "energy conversion coat" was designed for rare earth nanocrystals by the team of Associate Professor Han Sanyang from the Shenzhen International Graduate Institute of Tsinghua University, in collaboration with Professor Xu Hui and Professor Han Chunmiao from Heilongjiang University and Professor Liu Xiaogang from the National University of Singapore. This innovative design is capable of efficiently transferring energy to the organic molecular interface of rare earth nanocrystals, offering a new breakthrough for solving research and application challenges in electrically excited light emitting devices.
It is reported that the above research results are published online under the title of "Capture of electrically generated excitons for tunable rare-earth upconversion" in the international academic journal Nature.
New breakthrough
Lanthanide-upconversion nanoparticles have the innate advantages of adjustable emission colors, narrow emission spectral lines, and high emission stability, and by regulating the composition of dopant ions inside the nanoparticles, this material system can achieve multi-color emission in a wide color gamut, and thus is considered as a "potential stock" of electroluminescent materials. However, the insulating characteristics of rare earth materials make it difficult for current to be injected into them and transported, thus, rare earth nanoparticles are also referred to as the "insulating gemstone" in luminescent materials, and this "current-driven" bottleneck hinders the research and application of rare earth materials in modern optoelectronic technology.
According to multiple reports from media outlets such as China News Service and People's Daily Client, in response to the above challenges, the team led by Han San Yang, in collaboration with Xu Hui, the team led by Han Chun Miao, and the team led by Liu Xiao Gang, jointly undertook research and innovation. They successfully addressed the core issues of exciton generation, transport, and injection in electrically stimulated luminescence by ingeniously coating the rare earth nanoparticles with a " energy conversion outer garment" through surface modification, employing an organic-inorganic hybrid strategy to precisely regulate the energy level structure, and utilizing ligand engineering to efficiently allocate exciton energy to the luminescent lanthanide ion emitters. This achieved high color purity and spectrally adjustable efficient electrically stimulated luminescence.
"The significance of this achievement lies not only in 'powering up' rare earth materials but also in opening the door to their application in modern optoelectronic technology," Han introduced. Multiple experimental results show that this achievement has the potential in various wavebands of electrically stimulated emission, especially in high-resolution, wide-color display and near-infrared technology, where multi-color emission can be achieved without significant changes to the device structure, merely by regulating the rare earth ions.
It is reported that this achievement will not only promote the application of rare earth luminescence in flexible display, near-infrared devices and other fields, but also has the potential to be further applied to human health monitoring, non-invasive detection, and the development of crop补light technology.
Institutions are optimistic about the rare earth industry chain.
On the secondary market, rare earth stocks have recently adjusted in line with the broader market. However, securities research institutions are still optimistic about the medium and long-term outlook for the rare earth sector.
China is the world's largest producer, consumer and supplier of rare earth resources, and has the advantage of the entire industry chain of rare earth. Among them, according to the data of USGS, China's rare earth resource reserves account for about 40% of the global, and the distribution of heavy and light rare earths is southern heavy and northern light, and China has a more abundant and strategic value of medium and heavy rare earth resources; China's rare earth mine production accounts for about 70% of the global. In addition, China's rare earth smelting and separation and magnetic material processing capacity advantages are more prominent, and it is also the only country in the world with an entire industry chain layout.
The recent research report released by China Securities Building points out that rare earths have excellent magnetic, optical, and electrical properties that cannot be replaced. They play a huge role in improving product performance, increasing product variety, and improving production efficiency, and are widely used in metallurgy, military, petrochemical, glass ceramics, agriculture, and new materials. Before 2000, the main consumer sectors were machinery, metallurgy, and petrochemicals; however, after entering the 21st century, the technology of rare earth materials has been advancing rapidly, and permanent magnets, polishing, lighting, catalytic, and hydrogen storage materials have begun to emerge and develop rapidly.
Rare earth permanent magnets are the largest consumer of rare earths and maintain high-speed growth. Neodymium-iron-boron rare earth permanent magnet materials are the third generation of permanent magnet materials, which are currently the best magnetic performance and the most comprehensive performance of magnetic materials, and are known as the king of magnetism in modern times. It has many advantages, such as high coercive force, high magnetic energy product, small volume, low processing difficulty, etc. At present, it is widely used in new energy vehicles, energy-saving household appliances, consumer electronics, industrial applications, wind power generation and other fields.
New energy vehicles are the most obvious sector driving the demand for high-performance neodymium-iron-boron materials, with future demand expected to account for about 50%. Neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnetic materials are the core manufacturing materials for the permanent magnetic drive motors in new energy vehicles. It is expected that global new energy vehicle production will increase to over 26 million units by 2026, corresponding to a demand for neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnetic materials of 66,000 tons. The demand for neodymium-iron-boron in the automotive sector will approach 80,000 tons, making it the largest demand source for high-performance neodymium-iron-boron materials and accounting for about one-third of the total demand for high-performance magnetic materials. The new energy vehicle sector will become the most vigorous downstream demand for high-performance neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnetic materials.
Humanoid robots have about 30 joints, and the motor is the core component of the joint, which has high requirements for the motor, requiring a small volume, large torque, and fast response. Among them, the performance of magnetic materials determines the size of the joint output force and the running performance, so high-performance rare earth magnetic materials are needed, and the amount of rare earth permanent magnetic materials used in a single humanoid robot is expected to be 2-3kg. Tesla's third-quarter financial report in 2025 stated that the Optimus V3 is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026, and the million-level production line will be built at the end of the year. Looking at the long term, the market for humanoid robots may reach hundreds of millions of units, and the amount of magnetic materials needed for a single humanoid robot is not less than a new energy vehicle, which will greatly open up the demand ceiling for rare earth magnetic materials in the future.
China Securities Building Investment said that the demand for high-performance neodymium-iron-boron magnetic materials is expected to reach 212,000 tons in 2027, with a CAGR of 13%, due to the rapid growth in the fields of new energy vehicles, energy-saving motors, and wind power generation.
Xiangcai Securities recently issued a research report, maintaining the "add" rating for the rare earth magnet industry. The securities firm pointed out that on the one hand, the overall risk preference is declining and the easing of rare earth export policies still puts pressure on the high valuation of the sector. However, with the suspension of rare earth export controls, the improvement of export demand and the expectation of a tight supply side, the trend of price and prosperity recovery is expected to continue. In the short term, after the adjustment of the sector's performance, it is expected to enter a fluctuating state. First, continue to focus on upstream rare earth resource companies. On the one hand, the strengthening of supply contraction expectations and strategic value positioning, on the other hand, the support brought by the arrival of the mid-term demand peak is expected to benefit the profit repair and valuation premium of related rare earth resource companies. Second, as the trend of rare earth price recovery continues, the profit of downstream magnetic material companies is expected to continue to recover.
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