Researchers define Africa’s “Tesla Paradox” as the divide between the clean-energy promise of electric vehicles and the economic, environmental, and political burdens concentrated in mineral-rich African countries. The authors argue that limited local processing and weak governance restrict value capture while shifting ecological and social risks onto mining communities.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will lead a Genesis Mission project to help secure the nation’s critical mineral supply by developing AI tools to improve recovery of valuable transition metals from spent lithium-ion batteries.
Researchers estimated that dormant smartphones in Norway exceeded 10 million devices by 2024, substantially outnumbering the 6.8 million phones still in use. Across three analyzed components, active and dormant devices held about 80 tonnes of critical raw materials, although current recycling systems struggle to recover their rare-earth elements.
Modeling suggests that overlooking lithium, cobalt, and nickel constraints could overestimate China’s EV ownership by 42% in 2060 while underestimating cumulative CO2 emissions by 57% and transition costs by 6%. Recycling and lower-cobalt batteries could ease supply pressures, but net-zero transport would still require carbon-neutral or negative-emissions electricity or carbon removal.
Researchers developed a thiourea-derived surface treatment that combines a sub-nanometer sulfur-rich coating with a spinel-like layer to protect lithium-rich manganese oxide cathodes and accelerate lithium-ion transport. In laboratory solid-state half-cells, the modified cathode delivered 220.2 mAh g?¹ and retained approximately 97% of its capacity after 600 cycles at 1 C.
Researchers combined density functional theory, machine-learning-enhanced transition-state calculations, and microkinetic modeling to screen 12 Ni-based ternary alloys for nitric oxide reduction under representative aircraft exhaust conditions. The analysis identified four promising candidates, with Ni-Cr-Pt offering the strongest predicted balance of catalytic activity, stability, carbon resistance, and material cost, although experimental validation is still required.
In organic photovoltaics (OPV), low-energy spin-triplet excitons (T1) have long been regarded as “energy traps” that often dissipate energy as heat rather than contributing to light-to-electricity conversion.
The study found that projected U.S. light-duty EV adoption could cut life cycle GHG emissions by 61%, primary energy use by 20%, and total material extraction by 34% compared with an ICEV-only counterfactual. However, EVs increase demand for metals and critical minerals, making battery durability, recycling, and responsible mining central to maximizing climate gains.
Researchers found that green hydrogen’s freshwater demand can be substantially underestimated when evaporative cooling for large-scale electrolyzers is ignored. Their global analysis shows that solar-rich, arid regions face the highest water risks, while wind-rich regions often align better with water-sustainable hydrogen production.
In a constantly growing global medical device market, marked by increasingly strict regulation and rising demands in patient safety, the certification and validation of medical devices has become a critical requirement for market access.
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