A new and extensive study into the rare earth metals used in gadgets claims that there are no alternatives to the 62 metals used in smartphones that performed well, while 12 don’t have any alternative at all.
The study carried out by a team of researchers at Yale University led by Prof Thomas Graedel highlights the extensive dependence on rare earth metals in gadgets today and suggests that as more and more of these modern toys are manufactured, the supply of the rare earth metals or metalloids will be strained.
“We studied substitution potential by generating a comprehensive summary of potential substitutes for 62 different metals in all their major uses and of the performance of the substitutes in those applications”, read the abstract of the report.
“…for a dozen different metals, the potential substitutes for their major uses are either inadequate or appear not to exist at all. Further, for not 1 of the 62 metals are exemplary substitutes available for all major uses.”
Rare earth metal shortage is nothing new and it has been bothering vendors for quite a few years now. First is the extraction process involved, which is expensive. Secondly, there are environmental impacts because of the process involved, which has led many environmental organizations to raise their voices against the extensive use rare earths.
China accounts for production of most of these rare metals and back in 2010 it imposed restrictions on export of these metals citing environmental hazards. However, there could be financial reasons as well for the fact that the prices went up fivefold and local Chinese vendors were given the metals at a cheaper price.
The obvious choice to combat the scarcity and price rise would be look for alternatives; however, 12 of the metals used don’t have an alternative at all. The researchers note that “scientists will be increasingly challenged to maintain and improve product utility by designing new and better materials, but doing so under potential constraints in resource availability.”
Supporting information about the study and report can be found here.
