Between politics and research, the recent story of rare-earth chemistry

In the 2010s, rare earths gained significant attention in the global media due to the political tensions arising from China's announcement of a potential halt in its exports of these 17 chemical elements. This political maneuver underscored the widespread dependence of contemporary technology and economic progress on this relatively small segment of the chemical space located at the fringes of the periodic table. In this discussion, we present findings concerning the research-level implications of the so-called rare-earth crisis. By examining the annual production of new rare-earth chemicals from 1981 to 2020, we identified the predominant role played by the USA, China, and a handful of other nations in rare-earth research before 2003. Subsequently, there was a marked surge in China's influence, firmly establishing the Asian country not only as a commercial leader in rare earths but also as a key player in research. Our analysis also revealed that China's post-2003 ascendancy is primarily attributed to internal Chinese research efforts. In contrast, the scientific contributions of the USA, the second-largest producer of rare-earth knowledge, heavily rely on collaboration with Chinese counterparts. Intriguingly, despite the well-known magnetic properties of several rare earths, the expansion of the chemical space associated with these elements has predominantly stemmed from the growth of organometallic chemistry rather than advancements in alloy development.