Northeastern University researchers have designed a super-strong magnetic material that may revolutionize the production of magnets found in computers, mobile phones, electric cars and wind-powered generators.

The research was supported by a three-year, $360,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The findings — which dovetail with Northeastern’s focus on use-inspired research that solves global challenges in health, security and sustainability — will be published in an upcoming edition of the journal Applied Physics Letters.

“State-of-the-art electric motors and generators contain highly coercive magnets that are based on rare-earth elements, but we have developed a new material with similar properties without those exotic elements,” said coauthor Don Heiman, a physics professor in the College of Science. More