mischmetaln.
/ˈmɪʃˌmɛtl/, U.S. /ˈmɪʃˌmɛdl/ Any of a group of alloys of cerium and other lanthanide metals with small quantities of iron and other metals, used to make lighter flints, to improve the mechanical properties of iron and steel, and in various other industrial processes.
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mischmetal1915
1915 S. I. Levy Rare Earths ix. 115 By electrolytic reduction of the mixed chlorides of the cerium elements, a mixture known as ‘Misch metal’ is obtained.
1923 B. S. Hopkins Chem. Rarer Elem. x. 168 The most important of these [cerium alloys] is the alloy called misch metal, mixed metal, commercial cerium, or simply ‘cerium’.
1924 J. W. Mellor Comprehensive Treat. Inorg. & Theoret. Chem. V. xxxviii. 608 A. Sieverts and G. M. Goldegg studied the action of hydrogen and nitrogen on the mischmetals.
1954 H. E. Kremers in C. A. Hampel Rare Metals Handbk. xvi. 343 The most common ferrous alloy of the rare earths is the common lighter flint, which contains about 30 per cent iron, the balance being misch metal.
1984 N. N. Greenwood & A. Earnshaw Chem. of Elements (1986) xx. 1104 ‘Mischmetal’, an unseparated mixture of lanthanide metals containing about 25% La, is used in making lighter flints.
1996 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 354 1524 Pure lanthanum is too expensive for commercial use and so Ni–MHx batteries generally employ a ‘mischmetall’ alloy, prepared from unseparated rare earth oxides with other additives.
1997 Ambix 44 111 The inventions of Auer von Welsbach included the rare-earth incandescent gas mantle and his pyrophoric mischmetals.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1915