Technology-critical element

A technology-critical element (TCE) is a chemical element that is important to emerging technologies, in much higher demand than in the past, and in scarce supply relative to demand.

Many advanced engineering applications, like clean-energy production, communications or computing, use emergent technologies that utilize numerous chemical elements. As a result, in the early 21st century, a much greater proportion of metals in the periodic table are economically significant than in past centuries.[1] Technology-critical elements are those elements for which a striking acceleration in usage has emerged, relative to past consumption. The TCE concept is related to the degree to which an element is seen to be critical. Criticality is related to scarcity, which, in turn, is related to any imbalance between supply and demand. Various attempts at the assessment of this criticality have taken place over recent years.[2][3][4][5]

In most cases, these assessments use a two-parameter matrix with slightly different definitions, but generally involving supply risk and vulnerability to restriction of that supply. The set of elements usually considered as TCEs vary depending on the source, but they usually include: the 17 rare-earth elements (cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, promethium, samarium, scandium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, and yttrium), plus 18 more elements including platinum group elements (platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium) as well as beryllium, cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, lithium, caesium, niobium, tantalum, tellurium, antimony, and tungsten.

Other similar terms used in the literature include: Critical elements,[6] Critical materials,[5] Critical raw materials,[3][7] Energy critical elements[2] and Elements of security.[8]

In 2013, the US DOE created the Critical Materials Institute to address the issue.[9] In 2015, the European COST Action TD1407 created a network of scientists working and interested on TCEs, from an environmental perspective to potential human health threats.[10]

References
  1. Eggert, R.G. (2011). "Minerals go critical". Nat. Chem. 3 (9): 688–691. Bibcode:2011NatCh...3..688E. doi:10.1038/nchem.1116. PMID 21860456.
  2. APS (American Physical Society) and MRS (The Materials Research Society) (2011). Energy Critical Elements: Securing Materials for Emerging Technologies (PDF). Washington DC: APS.
  3. European Commission (2010). Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials.
  4. Resnick Institute (2011). Critical Materials for Sustainable Energy Applications (PDF). Pasadena, CA: Resnick Institute for Sustainable Energy Science.
  5. U.S. Department of Energy. Critical Materials Strategy. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy.
  6. Gunn, G. (2014). Critical Metals Handbook. Wiley.
  7. European Commission (2014). Report on Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials. European Commission.
  8. Parthemore, C. (2011). Elements of Security. Mitigating the Risks of U.S. Dependence on Critical Minerals. Center for New America Security.
  9. Turner, Roger (21 June 2019). "A Strategic Approach to Rare-Earth Elements as Global Trade Tensions Flare". www.greentechmedia.com.
  10. Cobelo-García, A.; Filella, M.; Croot, P.; Frazzoli, C.; Du Laing, G.; Ospina-Alvarez, N.; Rauch, S.; Salaun, P.; Schäfer, J. (2015). "COST action TD1407: network on technology-critical elements (NOTICE)—from environmental processes to human health threats". Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 22 (19): 15188–15194. doi:10.1007/s11356-015-5221-0. PMC 4592495. PMID 26286804.
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