The rare-earth/transition metal alloys exhibiting high permanent magne
t properties are able to reversibly absorb significant amounts of hydr
ogen. This affects markedly the fundamental characteristics of such in
termetallics, and can be used as a probe to understand better the basi
s of the magnetic interactions. In addition, structural, mechanical an
d chemical aspects of the hydrogenation process are used to improve th
e synthesis of appropriate powders for the magnet technologies.