5EA set to skyrocket, page-27

One possible future use case for boron that I have yet to see mentioned here or in articles is the potential in increasing the Magneto Calorific Effect of Lanthanides - both in the strength but also slightly increasing the Curie temperature making such materials last longer with less degredation due to heat buildup and cycling.

Influence of boron on the giant magnetocaloric effect of La(Fe 0.9Si 0.1) 13 - Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials via ResearchGate


Why is this of interest?
Daikin, the highest marketshare air-conditioning company is reportedly looking into Magnetic refrigeration as their next aircon technology.

The World’s Biggest Air-Conditioning Company Braces for a Hotter Future - Bloomberg

Bringing Solid-State Magnetocaloric Cooling to the Market: A Commercialization Plan - Oak Ridge National Laboratory


What is the Magnetocaloric Effect (MCE)
Certain materials heat up, when brought into a magnetic field. This phenomenon is called the magnetocaloric effect (MCE). Materials endowing this effect are called magnetocaloric materials (MCM). Using the magnetocaloric effect, a magnetic cooling cycle near room temperature is possible.

Magnetocaloric materials are metals endowing the magnetocaloric effect (MCE). Such materials include pure elements such as Gadolinium or alloys such as Lanthanum-iron-silicon (LaFeSi) or Iron-phosphorus (Fe2P).


How can this be used for refrigeration?
Basically, you can use the same principle used in conventional refrigeration of heat pumping, but do it all with less energy input and losses with only one moving part - no pumps, no refrigerant chemicals etc.

Instead, you move a permanent magnet back and forth so the magnetocalorific material goes into and out of the magnetic field and the heating and cooling action performs the same task as expanding or compressing the traditional coolant in conventional refrigeration.

Magnetocaloric Effect (MCE) - Magnotherm


Another, double-win for Boron if found to improve the effect with it already being prevelant in neodymium magnets (NdFeB) which you need anyhow to exploit this effect for cooling a warming world.