Headline: Work toward a cleaner way to purify critical metals

■ Release Date: 2024.8.27

■ Published by: DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

■ Keywords: rare-earth, zirconium, chromium

■ Abstract:

Over the past three years, a team of researchers has been pioneering an environmentally friendly method to separate critical rare-earth elements from watery mixtures.

Headline: Insights into spinel cobalt oxides may lead to efficient ammonia synthesis

■ Release Date: 2024.8.27

■ Published by: Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University

■ Keywords: cobalt oxide, ammonia, catalysts

■ Abstract:

Ammonia is a gas that plays a crucial role in agriculture and industry and has the potential to become a zero-carbon fuel for energy conversion and storage technologies. However, the current methods of producing ammonia are highly energy-intensive, contributing to approximately 1.8% of global CO2 emissions. By focusing on spinel cobalt oxides, a research team has revealed how understanding and optimizing these catalysts could offer a solution to this challenge.

Headline: Breaking open the AI black box, team finds key chemistry for solar energy and beyond

■ Release Date: 2024.8.28

■ Published by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

■ Keywords: solar, silicon, photostability

■ Abstract:

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for researchers, but with a significant limitation: The inability to explain how it came to its decisions, a problem known as the 'AI black box.' By combining AI with automated chemical synthesis and experimental validation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers has opened up the black box to find the chemical principles that AI relied on to improve molecules for harvesting solar energy.

Headline: Unveiling actual role of metal cocatalysts

■ Release Date: 2024.8.29

■ Published by: National Institutes of Natural Sciences

■ Keywords: cocatalysts, hydrogen, electrons

■ Abstract:

Synchronizing periodic excitations of photocatalysts with a Michelson interferometer on operando FT-IR spectroscopy, researchers succeeded in observing and identifying the reactive electron species for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. In contrast to the traditional belief, this study demonstrates that not the free electrons in metal cocatalysts but the electrons trapped in the periphery of cocatalysts directly contribute to the photocatalysis.

Headline: Researchers unveil scalable graphene technology to revolutionize battery safety and performance

■ Release Date: 2024.8.29

■ Published by: Swansea University

■ Keywords: battery, graphene, lithium-ion

■ Abstract:

Researchers have developed a pioneering technique for producing large-scale graphene current collectors. This breakthrough promises to significantly enhance the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), addressing a critical challenge in energy storage technology.

Headline: New process vaporizes plastic bags and bottles, yielding gases to make new, recycled plastics

■ Release Date: 2024.8.29

■ Published by: University of California - Berkeley

■ Keywords: plastics, polyolefin, polypropylene

■ Abstract:

Chemists have developed a catalytic process that turns the largest component of today's plastic waste stream, polyolefin plastic bags and bottles, into gases -- propylene and isobutylene -- that are the building blocks of polypropylene and other types of plastics. The process uses inexpensive solid catalysts that can be scaled to industrial production, making this a potentially viable means of creating a circular economy for these throw-away plastics.