Lawrence Berkeley Lab develops map of possible stable ternary nitride compounds

June 19, 2019
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Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Calif., in close collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other institutions, has developed a large interactive stability map of the ternary nitrides, highlighting nitride compositions. Stable phases are indicated on the ternary phase diagram shown by a blue square. So far, the map has yielded the prediction of 244 new stable ternary nitride compounds.

 

Formed by elements combining with nitrogen, nitrides can possess unique properties with potential applications from semiconductors to industrial coatings. But before nitrides can be put to use, they first must be discovered – and the odds of finding them in nature are slim.

 

“For ancient explorers, sailing into the unknown was a very risky endeavor, and in the same way, exploration of new chemical spaces can also be risky,” explained Wenhao Sun, lead author of the paper and staff scientist at Berkeley Lab. “If you don’t find a new material where you are looking, it can be a big waste of time and effort. Our chemical map can help to guide the exploratory synthesis of nitrides, just as maps helped to guide explorers, allowing them to navigate better.”

 

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/06/17/groundbreaking-study-maps-out-paths-to-new-nitride-materials/  

Lawrence Berkeley Lab develops map of possible stable ternary nitride compounds

Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Calif., in close collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other institutions, has developed a large interactive stability map of the ternary nitrides, highlighting nitride compositions.

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Mineral and organic acids extract rare earth elements from phosphate rock waste

March 11, 2019
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Researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, N.J., and members of the Critical Materials Institute in Ames, Iowa, announce that they have found a possible new source of rare earth elements in phosphate rock waste, and have developed an environmentally friendly way to extract the elements. Results of their study were published in the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics.

The research team explored using mineral and organic acids, including a bio-acid mixture, to extract six rare earth elements (yttrium, cerium, neodymium, samarium, europium, and ytterbium) from synthetic phosphogypsum. Scientists led by David Reed at Idaho National Laboratory produced the bio-acid mixture - consisting primarily of gluconic acid, found naturally in fruits and honey - by growing the bacteria Gluconobacter oxydans on glucose.

 

The results suggest that the bio-acid did a better job extracting rare earth elements than pure gluconic acid at the same pH (2.1), or degree of acidity. The mineral acids (sulfuric and phosphoric) failed to extract any rare earth elements in that scenario. When the four acids were tested at the same concentration, only sulfuric acid was more effective than the bio-acid.

 

Each year, an estimated 250 million tons of phosphate rock are mined to produce phosphoric acid for fertilizers. In the United States, approximately 28 million metric tons were mined in 2017. Rare earth elements generally amount to less than 0.1 percent in phosphate rock. But worldwide, about 100,000 tons of these elements per year end up in phosphogypsum waste. That's almost as much as the approximately 126,000 tons of rare earth oxides produced worldwide each year.

 

www.newbrunswick.rutgers.edu

 

https://cmi.ameslab.gov/

Mineral and organic acids extract rare earth elements from phosphate rock waste

Researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, N.J., and members of the Critical Materials Institute in Ames, Iowa, announce that they have found a possible new source of rare earth elements in phosphate rock waste, and have developed an environmentally friendly way to extract the elements.

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Australian scientists develop molten metal catalyst to change carbon dioxide into coal

March 3, 2019
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RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, announces that its researchers have developed a molten metal catalyst technique that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide from a gas into solid particles of carbon. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the research offers an alternative pathway for safely and permanently removing the greenhouse gas from our atmosphere.

 

RMIT researcher Dr. Torben Daeneke, an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, says that converting CO2 into a solid could be a more sustainable approach. “While we can’t literally turn back time, turning carbon dioxide back into coal and burying it back in the ground is a bit like rewinding the emissions clock,” says Dr. Daeneke “By using liquid metals as a catalyst, we’ve shown it is possible to turn the gas back into carbon at room temperature, in a process that’s efficient and scalable. While more research needs to be done, it’s a crucial first step to delivering storage of solid carbon.”

 

Lead author Dr. Dorna Esrafilzadeh, a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow in RMIT’s School of Engineering, developed the electrochemical technique. The researchers designed a liquid metal catalyst with specific surface properties that made it extremely efficient at conducting electricity, while chemically activating the surface. The carbon dioxide is dissolved in a beaker filled with a liquid electrolyte and a small amount of the liquid metal, which is then charged with an electrical current. The CO2 slowly converts into solid flakes of carbon, which are naturally detached from the liquid metal surface, allowing the continuous production of carbonaceous solid.

 

Dr. Esrafilzadeh says the carbon produced could also be used as an electrode. “A side benefit of the process is that the carbon can hold electrical charge, becoming a supercapacitor, so it could potentially be used as a component in future vehicles. The process also produces synthetic fuel as a by-product, which could also have industrial applications.”

 

The paper is published in Nature Communications (“Room temperature CO2 reduction to solid carbon species on liquid metals featuring atomically thin ceria interfaces”, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08824-8).

 

https://www.rmit.edu.au/

Australian scientists develop molten metal catalyst to change carbon dioxide into coal

RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, announces that its researchers have developed a molten metal catalyst technique that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide from a gas into solid particles of carbon.

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Lindberg ships 130 heat treating systems to automotive, aerospace, and other industries

January 8, 2019
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Lindberg MPH, Riverside, Mich., reports that in 2018 the company shipped a total of 130 units to companies in industries such as automotive, aerospace, foundry, electronics, R&D, oil & gas, and technology. Some examples of applications include soldering parts for computers, casting parts for recreational vehicles, and stress relieving drill heads for the oil & gas industry.

 

"Our strategic growth plan has been paying off, as we realized significant growth in equipment orders,” says Steve Kempowski, President, Lindberg/MPH. “We have added many jobs to our work force to support our growth. As we continue to execute our growth initiatives, we expect 2019 to be another very good year.”-

 

www.lindbergmph.com  

Lindberg ships 130 heat treating systems to automotive, aerospace, and other industries

Lindberg MPH, Riverside, Mich., reports that in 2018 the company shipped a total of 130 units to companies in industries such as automotive, aerospace, foundry, electronics, R&D, oil & gas, and technology.

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Advantest develops test capabilities for 5G medical devices, mobile electronics

December 15, 2018
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Advantest Corp., Tokyo, has developed advanced test solutions that enable 5G connectivity for such diverse applications as mobile electronics, medical devices, automotive systems, retail business, and big data.  

 

“The product portfolio that we have – and are continuing to develop – is designed to meet the global market’s requirements for 5G in applications from next-gen smart phones to connected cars,” says Judy Davies, Advantest’s vice president of global marketing communications.

 

Wave Scale RF and Wave Scale MX cards help to create paths for testing 5G devices by delivering high-efficiency test solutions for the ICs used in both today’s and emerging LTE, LTE-Advanced, and LTE-A Pro smart phones, as well as LTE-M, WLAN, GPS, ZigBee, Bluetooth and IoT applications. The cards’ advanced architectures allow for highly parallel testing of multiple communication standards or multiple paths within each device, resulting in high multi-site efficiency and a much lower cost of test.

 

The company has announced eight new systems and enhancements the past year. These include three new members of the B6700 product family of burn-in memory testers: models B6700D, -S and –L, which are designed to boost parallel testing capacity and lower the cost of test for NAND flash devices.

 

www.advantest.com

Advantest develops test capabilities for 5G medical devices, mobile electronics

Advantest Corp., Tokyo, has developed advanced test solutions that enable 5G connectivity for such diverse applications as mobile electronics, medical devices, automotive systems, retail business, and big data.

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Goodfellow to offer Victrex mineral-filled semicrystalline and amorphous PEEK film

December 6, 2018
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Goodfellow, Coraopolis, Pa., announces a major expansion of its range of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) materials to include 12 different forms: film, sheet, fiber, monofilament, powder, granule, tube, rod, mesh, bolt, nut, and washer. The company is now able to meet application requirements in an extraordinarily wide range of industries.

Of special note is the addition of more semi-crystalline unfilled, mineral-filled, and black cosmetic grades of PEEK film, along with a mineral-filled amorphous grade film. This is the result of an agreement Goodfellow has established with Victrex, an innovative world leader in high-performance polymer solutions, to adopt the full range of Victrex Aptiv PEEK films in sample quantities. Featuring a thin film format and used in a wide variety of applications in the aerospace, automotive, electronics, energy, and manufacturing industries, versatile Aptiv PEEK films provide exceptional durability and reliability in demanding application environments.

PEEK is a high-performance engineering thermoplastic with excellent mechanical properties and chemical resistance across a broad temperature range. It also exhibits extremely high resistance to steam sterilization, excellent radiation resistance, low outgassing under vacuum, and UL94 V-0 flammability rating.

www.goodfellowusa.com 

Goodfellow to offer Victrex mineral-filled semicrystalline and amorphous PEEK film

Goodfellow, Coraopolis, Pa., announces a major expansion of its range of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) materials to include 12 different forms: film, sheet, fiber, monofilament, powder, granule, tube, rod, mesh, bolt, nut, and washer.

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U.S. Department of Energy grant to advance electrolysis process for copper production.

October 4, 2018
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, announces that associate professor of metallurgy Antoine Allanore has received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to run larger scale tests of a new way to produce copper using electricity to separate copper from melted sulfur-based minerals, which are the main source of copper.

 

In June 2017, researchers in Prof. Allanore’s lab identified how to selectively separate pure copper and other metallic elements from sulfide mineral ore in one step. Their molten sulfide electrolysis process eliminates sulfur dioxide, a noxious byproduct of traditional copper extraction methods, instead producing pure elemental sulfur.

 

“We think that with our technology we could provide these copper wires with less energy consumption and higher productivity,” Prof. Allanore says. It may be possible to cut the energy needed for making copper by 20 percent.

 

In earlier research, postdoc Sulata K. Sahu and graduate student Brian J. Chmielowiec decomposed sulfur-rich minerals at high temperature into pure sulfur and extracted three different metals at very high purity: copper, molybdenum, and rhenium. The process is similar to the Hall-Héroult process, which uses electrolysis to produce aluminum, but operates at a higher operating temperature to enable production of liquid copper.

Currently, it takes multiple steps to separate out copper, first crushing sulfide minerals, and then floating out the copper-bearing parts. This copper-rich material — copper concentrate — is next partially refined in a smelter, and further purified with electrolytic refining.

 

“Professor Allanore’s approach would work on the copper concentrate and has the potential to produce copper rod in a single operation while separating unwanted impurities and recovering valuable byproducts that are also in the concentrate,” says Hal Stillman, director of technology development and transfer for the International Copper Association. “Professor Allanore’s approach is a big step; it allows a completely new approach to refining copper.”

 

The three-year, $1.89 million DOE award will allow Allanore’s group to make a larger reactor, producing about 10 times as much liquid copper per hour, and to run the reactor for a longer time, enough to identify what happens to the other metals accompanying copper, which are also commercially important.

 

http://news.mit.edu/

U.S. Department of Energy grant to advance electrolysis process for copper production.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, announces that associate professor of metallurgy Antoine Allanore has received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to run larger scale tests of a new way to produce copper using electricity to separate copper from melted sulfur-based minerals, which are the main source of copper.

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Braidy Industries acquires nanostructured aluminum producer NanoAl

September 23, 2018
Source:

Braidy Industries Inc., Ashland, Ky., announces that it has acquired NanoAl LLC, a world leader in the science of nanocrystalline strengthening technology applied to sheet aluminum, as a third wholly owned subsidiary. NanoAl will join the Braidy Atlas aluminum rolling mill and Veloxint in the Braidy Industries company portfolio of holdings.

NanoAl was founded out of the Department of Materials Science at Northwestern University to commercialize the science of developing stronger aluminum alloys through control of key structural features at the nanoscale. Braidy believes the technology has the potential to significantly enhance the specific strength of aluminum to be produced by its Braidy Atlas mill, creating a competitive advantage within the automotive and aerospace OEM marketplace.

“We believe NanoAl’s innovative approach will enable sheet aluminum 20 percent stronger than conventional grades, while maintaining lower cost. The technology also applies to powder metallurgy, including 3D printing applications, allowing additional synergies between the Braidy Atlas mill and Veloxint,” said Dr. Alan Lund, Veloxint CEO and Chief Technology Officer of Braidy,. “This is another step towards our goal of rebuilding Appalachia with cutting edge technology focused on lightweighting solutions.”

According to Dr. Nhon Q. Vo, Chief Executive, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of NanoAl, “Our new partnership with Braidy Industries and Veloxint provides the opportunity to scale our research and development capabilities and become the innovation leader in nano-science technology of light metals.”

Craig T. Bouchard, Braidy Industries Chairman and Chief Executive said, “We have the opportunity to grow our powder metallurgy business via acquisition. And, we have been approached by numerous parties to consider building our second rolling mill. We intend to pursue these opportunities.”

www.braidyindustries

 

Braidy Industries acquires nanostructured aluminum producer NanoAl

Braidy Industries Inc., Ashland, Ky., announces that it has acquired NanoAl LLC, a world leader in the science of nanocrystalline strengthening technology applied to sheet aluminum, as a third wholly owned subsidiary.

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