Rare earth metals
Cerium metal
Cerium is the most abundant of the rare earth elements, making up about 0.0046% of the Earth's crust by weight. Commercially cerium and its compounds are being used in catalysts, additives to fuel to reduce emissions and in glass and enamels to change their color.
A traditional use of cerium was in the pyrophoric mischmetal alloy used for flints. Because of the high affinity of cerium to sulfur and oxygen, it is used in various aluminium alloys, and iron alloys. In steels, cerium degasifies and can help reduce sulfides and oxides content, and it is a precipitation hardening agent in stainless steel. Adding cerium to cast irons opposes graphitization and produces a malleable iron. Addition of 3–4% of cerium to magnesium alloys, along with 0.2 to 0.6% zirconium, helps refine the grain and give sound casting of complex shapes. It also adds heat resistance to magnesium castings. Cerium alloys are used in permanent magnets and in tungsten electrodes for gas tungsten arc welding.
- Primary shapes: trapezoids of 30 grams, 50 grams, 100 grams, 250 grams, 500 grams and bigger
- Secondary shapes: wire, rod, bars, powder
- TREM min.99%, Ce/TREM (% min): 99%,imp. max %: La 0.3, Pr 0.1, Nd 0.1, Fe 0.25, Si 0.05, etc.
- TREM min.99%, Ce/TREM (% min): 99.9%, imp. max %: La 0.03, Pr 0.01, Nd 0.01, Fe 0.2, Si 0.03, etc.
- TREM min.99%, Ce/TREM (% min): 99.95%, imp. max %: La 0.005, Pr 0.005, Nd 0.005, Fe 0.1, Si 0.02, etc.
