A research team developed electrokinetic mining (EKM), an eco-friendly method for extracting rare earth elements. EKM reduces environmental harm, lowers resource use, and achieved over 95% recovery in industrial tests, marking a breakthrough in sustainable mining.
On-adsorption rare earth deposits (IADs) are the primary source of heavy rare earth elements (HREE), meeting over 90% of global demand. However, the widely used ammonium-salt-based in-situ mining method has caused significant environmental damage.
To promote sustainable rare earth element (REE) extraction, Professors Jianxi Zhu and Hongping He from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed an environmentally friendly and efficient electrokinetic mining (EKM) technology.
Scientists at Penn State have discovered a method to induce ferroelectric properties in non-ferroelectric materials by layering them with ferroelectric materials, a phenomenon termed proximity ferroelectricity.
This breakthrough offers a novel approach to creating ferroelectric materials without altering their chemical composition, preserving their intrinsic properties, and potentially revolutionizing data storage, wireless communication, and the development of next-generation electronic devices.
New ferroelectric materials without chemical alterations.
In this video, we simplify gluconeogenesis, an essential metabolic pathway that helps your body maintain glucose levels during fasting or intense activity.
We’ll walk you through: ✔️ What gluconeogenesis is and why it’s important. ✔️ Key steps in the pathway. ✔️ Enzymes involved and their regulation. ✔️ How it ties into other metabolic processes.
Ready to make biochemistry easy? Watch now!
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Stanford researchers have introduced a software tool that accelerates and enhances the analysis of single atom catalysts, offering profound implications for the development of more efficient catalysts.
Catalysts play an essential role in everyday life, from helping bread rise to converting raw materials into fuels more efficiently. Now, researchers at SLAC have developed a faster method to advance the discovery of an exciting new type of catalyst known as single atom catalysts.
A research team from Yokohama National University has developed a novel approach to investigate how the orientation and behavior of electrons in titanium affect its physical properties. Their findings, published in Communications Physics on December 18, 2024, offer valuable insights that could lead to the creation of more advanced and efficient titanium alloys.
Titanium is highly prized for its exceptional resistance to chemical corrosion, lightweight nature, and impressive strength-to-weight ratio. Its biocompatibility makes it an ideal material for medical applications such as implants, prosthetics, and artificial bones, while its strength and durability make it indispensable in aerospace engineering and precision manufacturing.
Imagine a world where cancer treatment doesn’t rely on harsh chemicals or debilitating side effects, but instead harnesses a natural defense mechanism embedded in every cell of our bodies. Recent breakthroughs by scientists at Northwestern University suggest this may soon be a reality. They’ve uncovered a “kill switch” that could change everything we know about cancer treatment, offering a new path that sidesteps the harmful impacts of chemotherapy. But how does this hidden code work, and could it truly offer a more effective way to fight cancer?
Northwestern University scientists have uncovered a powerful “kill switch” embedded in every cell of the body, which may provide a natural defense mechanism against cancer. This kill switch operates using small RNA molecules, known as microRNAs, and large protein-coding RNAs that trigger cell self-destruction when they detect signs of cancer. The key discovery is that these molecules can effectively induce cancer cell death without allowing the cancer to develop resistance, a significant advantage over traditional chemotherapy.
The microRNAs use a mechanism called DISE (Death Induced by Survival gene Elimination) to initiate cancer cell death. DISE works by eliminating multiple genes essential for cancer cell survival, making it impossible for the cells to adapt or become resistant. Researchers found that the most effective microRNAs contain a specific sequence of six nucleotides, referred to as “6mers,” which are particularly toxic to cancer cells. This finding emerged from an exhaustive study where scientists tested all 4,096 possible combinations of these nucleotide sequences, eventually identifying the most lethal ones, which are rich in guanine (G) nucleotides.
Microplasma devices are incredibly versatile tools for generating and sustaining plasmas on micro-and millimeter scales. The latest advances in nanotechnology now promise to expand their range of applications even further but, so far, this progress has been held back by the limited stability of some nanostructures at the extreme temperatures required to sustain many plasmas.
In a recent study published in Fundamental Plasma Physics, K J Sankaran and colleagues at the CSIR Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, India, overcome this challenge by decorating sheets of graphene with more stable nanodiamonds—that is, diamonds with diameters smaller than about 100 nm—allowing them to endure far more extreme conditions.
This combined material could expand the use of microplasma devices across a diverse array of useful applications, such as sterilizing and healing wounds, analyzing chemicals, and displaying images.
Bimetallic particles, made from a combination of a noble metal and a base metal, have unique catalytic properties that make them highly effective for selective heterogeneous hydrogenation reactions. These properties arise from their distinctive geometric and electronic structures. For hydrogenation to be both effective and selective, it requires specific interactions at the molecular level, where the active atoms on the catalyst precisely target the functional group in the substrate for transformation.
Nanoscale Engineering and Electronic Structure Tuning
Scaling these particles down to nanoscale atomic clusters or single-atom alloys further enhances their catalytic performance. This reduction in size increases surface dispersion and optimizes the use of noble metal atoms. Additionally, these nanoscale changes alter the electronic structure of the active sites, which can significantly influence the activity and selectivity of the reaction. By carefully adjusting the bonding between noble metal single atoms and the base metal host, researchers can create flexible environments that fine-tune the electronic properties needed to activate specific functional groups. Despite these advances, achieving atomically precise fabrication of such active sites remains a significant challenge.
A team of metallurgists and geochemists at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, working with a mechanical engineer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has improved their previous electrokinetic mining technique by scaling it up to industrial levels. In their paper published in Nature Sustainability, the group describes the changes they made to their system, and the results of testing they conducted at a mine.
Modern technology is reliant on multiple rare earth elements —they are used in EVs, smartphones and computers, for example. Unfortunately, mining such elements is extremely environmentally unfriendly. Huge machines are used to dig dirt and rock from large mines, where it is mixed with water and a host of toxic chemicals in order to extract the desired elements.
The process produces thousands of metric tons of toxic waste. The team in China has been working for several years to develop a cleaner way to extract the elements. It involves generating an electric field underground that coaxes the desired elements closer together and concentrates them, making for a much easier and cleaner separation process.
Researchers have developed a new method for quickly detecting and identifying very low concentrations of gases. The new approach, called coherently controlled quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy, could form the basis for highly sensitive real-time sensors for applications such as environmental monitoring, breath analysis and chemical process control.
“Most gases are present in small amounts, so detecting gases at low concentrations is important in a wide variety of industries and applications,” said research team leader Simon Angstenberger from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. “Unlike other trace gas detection methods that rely on photoacoustics, ours is not limited to specific gases and does not require prior knowledge of the gas that might be present.”
In Optica, the researchers report the acquisition of a complete methane spectrum spanning 3,050 to 3,450 nanometers in just three seconds, a feat that would typically take around 30 minutes.
