Crosscutting Research

The CMI focus area Crosscutting Research creates new ways to enable science, sustain the environment and analyze the supply chain and economics of rare earth elements and critical materials. Researchers leading projects in Crosscutting Research are located at Ames Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Colorado School of Mines, Purdue University and Rutgers.

News & Highlights

All News | All Highlights

Modified Cumulative Availability Curve integrating copper reserves and resources. The vertical axis indicates the estimated extraction cost in different countries. The horizontal axis indicates remaining contained copper from known deposits.

Research Highlight

Reconciling diverging views on mineral depletion - a modified cumulative availability curve applied to copper resources

Bar graph compares the projected global warming impact of different leaching approaches.

Research Highlight

Finding optimal conditions for bioleaching lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathode materials

CMI research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been published in a book chapter summarizing state-of-the-art theoretical understanding of point defects in gallium oxide

Research Highlight

Contribution to book on gallium oxide and related alloys

Calculated charge-state transition levels for candidate donor dopants shown with respect to the conduction band edge in (AlxGa1-x)2O3 alloys, shown as a function of Al content.

Research Highlight

Survey of donor dopants reported

High-throughput (HiTp) synthesis and rapid characterization was used to identify permanent magnet alloy compositions with decreased critical material content.

Research Highlight

Development of permanent magnets using low cost mischmetal

Research Projects

CMI Project 4.1.11: Advanced search for high-performance materials (AS4HPM)

Aurelien Perron at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory leads the CMI project "Advanced search for high-performance materials (AS4HPM)"

CMI Project 4.1.12: Machine learning materials design

Fei Zhou at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory leads the CMI project "Machine learning materials design"

CMI Project 4.1.13: Accelerated alloy development and rapid assessment

Ryan Ott at Ames Laboratory leads the CMI project "Accelerated alloy development and rapid assessment"

CMI Project 4.1.16: Crosscutting thermodynamic properties of critical materials

Rik Riman at Rutgers leads the CMI project "Crosscutting thermodynamic properties of critical materials"

CMI Project 4.2.11: Biogeochemical impacts of wastes from critical materials recovery

Yoshiko Fujita at Idaho National Laboratory leads the CMI project "Biogeochemical impacts of wastes from critical materials recovery"

CMI Project 4.3.11: Roadmaps for technology development

Emmanuel Ohene Opare at Idaho National Laboratory leads the CMI project "Roadmaps for technology development"

CMI Project 4.3.12: Impact of research on global material supply chains

Ruby Nguyen at Idaho National Laboratory leads the CMI project "Impact of research on global material supply chains"

CMI Project 4.3.13: Optimizing the economic performance of CMI technologies

John Sutherland at Purdue University leads the CMI project "Optimizing the economic performance of CMI technologies"

CMI Project 4.3.14: Criticality, life cycles, material flows and scenarios

Rod Eggert at Colorado School of Mines leads the CMI project "Criticality, life cycles, material flows and scenarios"