Critical Materials Innovation Hub News

CMI to feature award-winning aluminum alloy for additive manufacturing at Defense TechConnect

A new Al-Ce additive manufacturing alloy invented by the Critical Materials Institute, an Energy Innovation Hub sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, will be featured at the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit and Expo Oct. 8-10, National Harbor, Maryland.

aluminum-cerium turbines installed to generate electricity from moving water

Scientists discover potential path to improving samarium-cobalt magnets

Scientists from the Critical Materials Institute and Ames Laboratory have discovered a potential tool to enhance magnetization and magnetic anisotropy, making it possible to improve the performance of samarium-cobalt magnets.

Critical Materials Institute: Shining new and better light on research and industry collaborations

It was, in a manner of speaking, the ultimate light bulb moment when General Electric’s Lighting business and the Critical Materials Institute first joined forces in 2013 to solve a manufacturing challenge. The partnership resulted in new materials, new patents, and new processes to make GE’s lighting more efficient and less reliant on difficult-to-find raw materials.

Critical Materials Institute wins TechConnect National Innovation Award

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) led by Ames Laboratory has been selected as a 2019 TechConnect National Innovation Awardee for the innovation “Additive Manufacturing of Bonded Permanent Magnets using a Novel Polymer Matrix.”

CMI one of 32 R&D 100 Award winners for Department of Energy

Researchers at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) and Ames Laboratory are winners of an R&D 100 Award. Researchers invented a magnet recycling process in which magnets are dissolved in water-based solutions, recovering more than 99 percent purity rare earth elements.

Critical Materials Institute takes major step toward printed anisotropic magnets

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute has taken a major step toward printed, aligned anisotropic magnets via additive manufacturing processes. The Energy Innovation Hub manufactured hybrid nylon bonded neodymium-iron-boron and samarium-iron-nitrogen magnet using the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Rare-earth magnet recycling wins FLC innovation award

An acid-free dissolution rare-earth magnet recycling process has earned a 2018 Notable Technology Development Award from the Federal Laboratories Consortium (FLC).

Researchers at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) and Ames Laboratory invented a magnet recycling process in which magnets are dissolved in water-based solutions, recovering more than 99 percent purity rare earth elements. Cobalt is also recovered from cobalt-containing magnet wastes. The rare earth materials recovered have been reused in making new magnets, and the recovered cobalt shows promise for use in making battery cathodes.

Finding better magnets faster with 3D metal printing prototyping

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) used laser 3D metal printing to optimize a permanent magnet material that may make an economical alternative to the more expensive rare-earth neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets in some applications.

Iowa cornfields could play a role in recycling old electronics

A new biochemical leaching process has been developed that uses corn stover as feedstock, and recovers valuable rare earth metals from electronic waste.

It’s nothing new to Iowans that corn and its byproducts can be used for high-tech applications ranging from bioplastics to ethanol. Using corn stover for what is essentially a mining process may seem like a stretch even for Iowa – the world’s biggest producer of corn—but the new process does indeed use stover as a key ingredient. The research was directed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) headquartered at the Ames Laboratory on the Iowa State University campus, and carried out by scientists at Idaho and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, and Purdue University.

Critical Materials Institute develops new acid-free magnet recycling process

A new rare-earth magnet recycling process developed by researchers at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) dissolves magnets in an acid-free solution and recovers high purity rare earth elements. For shredded magnet-containing electronic wastes, the process does not require pre-processing such as pre-sorting or demagnetization of the electronic waste.