Revolutionary breakthrough: bacteria help in the circular economy of rare earths

Recycling Rare Earths with biomass: Previously uninvestigated strains of cyanobacteria can adsorb metals

01-Mar-2023 - Rare Earth metals are essential to countless high-tech applications. Working together with the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, a research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now succeeded in recycling these valuable metals from aqueous solutions using previously ...

Smog clears on car exhaust catalyst design

Systematic study resolves a debate on the best combination of metals to catalytically clean NOx from vehicle emissions

09-Jun-2022 - Smog-producing chemicals could be almost eliminated from the tailpipes of diesel cars and vans, using a new exhaust catalyst concept developed at KAUST. After systematically studying multiple catalyst compositions, the research team identified the ideal atomic recipe to catalytically remove NOx ...

Cerium sidelines silver to make drug precursor

Rice University lab's process simplifies fluoroketone synthesis

02-Mar-2021 - Save your silver! It's better used for jewelry than as a catalyst for drugs. Rice University scientists have developed a greatly simplified method to make fluoroketones, precursors for drug design and manufacture that typically require a silver catalyst. Rice chemist Julian West and graduate ...

High-performance single-atom catalysts for high-temperature fuel cells

Catalysts are stable at 700 degrees Celsius and expected to stimulate the commercialization of next-gen reversible fuel cells

29-Sep-2020 - Unlike secondary batteries that need to be recharged, fuel cells are a type of eco-friendly power generation systems that produce electricity directly from electrochemical reactions using hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as oxidant. There are various types of fuel cells, differing in operating ...

Metal with unusual properties

18-Dec-2019 - A Chinese-German research cooperation involving the University of Augsburg has demonstrated properties in a metal that cannot be explained by the standard theory. The results were obtained on a special metallic compound with unusual magnetic characteristics – scientists call it mag-netic ...

Researchers synthesize 'impossible' superconductor

04-Oct-2019 - Researchers from the U.S., Russia, and China have bent the rules of classical chemistry and synthesized a "forbidden" compound of cerium and hydrogen -- CeH9 -- which exhibits superconductivity at a relatively low pressure of 1 million atmospheres. Superconductors are materials capable of ...

‘Bio-fishing’ for rare earths

How protein fragments can be used for the recycling of electronics waste

17-Oct-2018 - Without important key elements such as copper or rare earth metals, the electronics industry would grind to a halt and electricity would cease to flow. End-of-life products like discarded energy-saving lamps, mobile phones and computers could provide an important secondary source for these ...

Theory for one type of superconductor solves puzzle in another

11-May-2018 - A 2017 theory proposed by Rice University physicists to explain the contradictory behavior of an iron-based high-temperature superconductor is helping solve a puzzle in a different type of unconventional superconductor, the "heavy fermion" compound known as CeCu2Si2. An international team from ...

Breaking bad metals with neutrons

15-Jan-2018 - By exploiting the properties of neutrons to probe electrons in a metal, a team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has gained new insight into the behavior of correlated electron systems, which are materials that have useful properties such as ...

Cheaper catalytic converter meets modern engines

Less platinum needed

18-Dec-2017 - As cars become more fuel efficient, less heat is wasted in the exhaust, which makes it harder to clean up the pollutants being emitted. Researchers at Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of New Mexico have created a catalyst capable of reducing ...