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Category: sustainability

The oceans hold an enormous amount of very diluted uranium that could potentially serve as a sustainable fuel source for nuclear power. But how can uranium be extracted quickly and efficiently from seawater?

Balancing high selectivity for ions with rapid transport of those ions has long been a major challenge in obtaining uranium from the sea. Now a groundbreaking study suggests a solution.

A research team led by Prof. Wen Liping from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a biomimetic adsorbent that can attract and hold uranium ions. The inspiration for this adsorbent is the natural porous structure of the spiky, globular fruit of the Chinese sweetgum tree, Liquidambar formosana. The team’s findings were recently published in Matter.

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Photovoltaic (PV) solutions, which are designed to convert sunlight into electrical energy, are becoming increasingly widespread worldwide. Over the past decades, engineers specialized in energy solutions have been trying to identify new solar cell designs and PV materials that could achieve even better power conversion efficiencies, while also retaining their stability and reliably operating for long periods of time.

The many emerging PV solutions that have proven to be particularly promising include tandem based on both perovskites (a class of materials with a characteristic crystal structure) and organic materials. Perovskite/organic tandem solar cells could be more affordable than existing silicon-based solar cells, while also yielding higher power conversion efficiencies.

These solar cells are manufactured using wide-bandgap perovskites, which have an electronic bandgap greater than 1.6 electronvolts (eV) and can thus absorb higher-energy photons. Despite their enhanced ability to absorb high-energy light particles, these materials have significant limitations, which typically adversely impact the stability of solar cells.

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Want to restore the planet’s ecosystems and see your impact in monthly videos? The first 200 people to join Planet Wild with my code SABINE23 will get the first month for free at https://planetwild.com/r/sabinehossen…

If you want to get to know them better first, check out their latest mission, where they go on to Kenya to find a more peaceful solution for the coexistence of lions and farms. https://planetwild.com/r/sabinehossen…

Last month, DARPA published a call for proposals on how to “grow” massive biological structures in space. It’s not as crazy as it sounds: The space race is heating up outside of the weird space biology sector. Some startups are building self-assembling space habitats, others are working on spaceports, and the ISS’s successor is in development. Let’s take a look.

The DARPA Call: https://sam.gov/opp/426e5868fcf74dd4a…

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Every year, millions of tires end up in landfills, creating an environmental crisis with far-reaching consequences. In the United States alone, over 274 million tires were scrapped in 2021, with nearly 20% of them being discarded in landfills. The accumulation of these waste materials presents not only a space issue but also introduces environmental hazards, such as chemical leaching and spontaneous combustion.

While pyrolysis—a process that chemically recycles rubber through high-temperature decomposition—is widely used, it generates harmful byproducts like benzene and dioxins, posing health and environmental risks.

A study titled “Deconstruction of Rubber via C–H Amination and Aza-Cope Rearrangement,” published in Nature, introduces a novel chemical method for breaking down rubber waste. This technique utilizes C–H amination and a polymer rearrangement strategy to transform discarded rubber into valuable precursors for , offering an innovative and sustainable alternative to traditional recycling methods.

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Sometimes cell phones die sooner than expected or electric vehicles don’t have enough charge to reach their destination. The rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries in these and other devices typically last hours or days between charging. However, with repeated use, batteries degrade and need to be recharged more frequently.

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Electric vehicles (EVs) are transforming transportation, but challenges such as cost, longevity, and range remain barriers to widespread adoption. At the heart of these challenges lies battery technology—specifically, the electrolyte, a critical component that enables energy storage and delivery. The electrolyte’s properties directly impact a battery’s charging speed, power output, stability, and safety.

To overcome these hurdles, researchers are turning to AI-driven approaches to accelerate the discovery of novel battery materials.

SES AI, a leader in battery innovation, is leveraging the cutting-edge NVIDIA hardware and software ecosystem to revolutionize materials discovery. By combining domain-adapted LLMs with an AI model and GPU-accelerated simulations in a single workflow, SES AI compresses decades of research into months and unlocks groundbreaking advancements in EV battery performance.

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As the world makes more use of renewable energy sources, new battery technology is needed to store electricity for the times when the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing.

“Current lithium batteries have reached their limitations in terms of energy storage capability, life cycle, and safety,” says Xiaolei Wang, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “They’re good for applications like and portable electronics, but they’re not suitable for large-scale grid-level energy storage.”

With the help of the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, Wang and his team are developing new technologies to help make grid-level aqueous batteries that can use seawater as an electrolyte. The study is published in the journal Advanced Materials.

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Researchers have developed a new material that, by harnessing the power of sunlight, can clear water of dangerous pollutants. Created through a combination of soft chemistry gels and electrospinning—a technique where electrical force is applied to liquid to craft small fibers—the team constructed thin fiber-like strips of titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a compound often utilized in solar cells, gas sensors and various self-cleaning technologies.

Despite being a great alternative energy source, solar fuel systems that utilize TiO₂ nanoparticles are often power-limited because they can only undergo photocatalysis, or create , by absorbing non-visible UV light. This can cause significant challenges to implementation, including low efficiency and the need for complex filtration systems.

Yet when researchers added copper to the material to improve this process, their new structures, called nanomats, were able to absorb enough light energy to break down harmful pollutants in air and water, said Pelagia-Iren Gouma, lead author of the study and a professor of materials science and engineering at The Ohio State University.

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In a groundbreaking step toward sustainable energy, Helsinki has just unveiled the world’s largest heat pump, a game-changing system capable of providing heat to 30,000 homes. This massive infrastructure not only represents a technological breakthrough, but also signals a major shift in how cities can transition to greener energy sources. By harnessing renewable power and cutting dependence on fossil fuels, Finland is setting a new standard for efficient, low-emission heating solutions.

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