Northwestern University researchers used a Birch reduction-inspired solvated electron solution to relithiate chemically degraded NMC532 within seconds at room temperature, followed by a three-hour oxygen anneal to restore its near-surface structure. In lithium-metal half cells, the regenerated cathode delivered 159.49 mAh/g and retained 94.10% of its capacity after 100 cycles, although the researchers tested laboratory-generated model end-of-life material rather than cathodes recovered from retired batteries.
A review of rare earth element-containing materials finds that cerium, lanthanum, and other REEs can improve redox behavior, oxygen mobility, electrochemical activity, charge separation, hydrogen storage, and membrane performance across several hydrogen-production technologies. Most advances remain at laboratory scale, with wider deployment dependent on cost, resource availability, extraction impacts, long-term stability, recycling, and techno-economic feasibility.
High-entropy alloys are highly promising structural and functional materials. Among them, refractory high-entropy alloys possess outstanding high-temperature mechanical properties and have broad application prospects in critical components under extreme working conditions such as aerospace, nuclear power, and gas turbines.
Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), led by President Chul-jin Choi, announced that a research team led by Principal Researcher Sung Mook Choi of the Energy & Environment Materials Research Division, in collaboration with research teams led by Professor Min Ho Seo of Pukyong National University and Professor Won Bae Kim of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), has developed a highly durable platinum-nickel (PtNi) hydrogen evolution catalyst that suppresses nickel (Ni) leaching through atomic ordering.
SteelX Solar Power, will commence offering lightweight, integrated solar roofing solutions to the North American market in partnership with Swedish developer and manufacturer of thin film solar cells and panels Midsummer.
Researchers estimate that waste streams from Alberta’s Athabasca Oil Sands Region contain substantial quantities of titanium, zirconium, rare earth elements, vanadium, and nickel that could represent secondary critical mineral resources. However, complex mineralogy, stable metal-bearing compounds, environmental risks, and regulatory challenges mean economically viable recovery will require substantial technological development.
Researchers developed CoatingDet, a publicly available dataset containing 5,416 high-resolution images of wind turbine tower coatings captured under real manufacturing conditions, with annotations for critical defects and benign surface particles. Validation with YOLOv11n and RT-DETR showed the dataset can support reproducible deep learning-based inspection while highlighting the importance of lighting conditions and class imbalance for reliable deployment.
A prospective life cycle assessment of 37 metals found that net-zero energy technologies will increase mining-related environmental damage, especially from copper, nickel, and aluminum. Even so, the modeled climate benefits of deeper decarbonization outweighed the added metal burden by roughly 400 to 1.
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.
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