Critical Materials Innovation Hub Research Highlights

Biosorption – selective REE-lanmodulin binding

CMI researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and Pennsylvania State University working on biosorption used a novel protein for selective binding with rare earth elements

REE/Cu thermodynamic selectivity of common REE chelators and showing high REE-selectivity of Lanmodulin (LanM).

Machine vision development for automated pattern recognition

CMI researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a machine vision for automated pattern recognition

Automated fastener classification & ID setup

Critical materials recovery and circular economy research laboratory

CMI researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a critical materials recovery and circular economy research laboratory

Improving alnico magnets using thermomagnetic processing

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated increases in coercivity and energy product and tuning of phase transformation temperatures in alnico using high magnetic field processing

Demonstration of increases in both coercivity and energy product of alnico when heat treated in a magnetic field.

New CMI capability: rare earth magnet powder synthesis in high magnetic fields

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed and demonstrated a new reactor for producing rare earth magnet materials in high magnetic fields via hydrogenation-disproportionation-desorption-recombination (HDDR) chemistry.

The 9 Tesla superconducting magnet accommodates the specially designed HDDR reactor.

Finite Element Model for mechanical properties of SmCo5

CMI research conducted at Ames Laboratory developed a finite-element (FE) model for a SmCo5 magnet matrix with Sm2O3 impurities. The results accurately predict the stress distribution from a three-point bend analysis to identify domains of stress concentration and failure.

FEM vs. Microstructural model, showing the stress-strain relationship to be accurately captured by the computationally less intensive FEM model. This allows for very rapid assessments of mechanical properties of novel architectures.

Magnetically aligned electrodes predicted to increase lithium-ion battery capacity by as much as 25%

CMI research at Ames Laboratory developed a coupled electrochemical-thermal-mechanical model to predict the electrochemical degradation and performance of magnetically aligned electrodes in lithium-ion batteries for fast-charging applications

Capacity gain vs. relative tortuosity. Note the more than 25% gain at low tortuosity for the high charging rate 4C.

Critical materials periodic table

CMI research produced a Critical Materials Periodic Table. Every element includes market pricing, supplier information, U.S. import reliance, and crustal abundance.

Lithium purification from leachate solution

CMI research at Idaho National Laboratory demonstrated Li2CO3 recovery, with a Li purity over 90 percent, from a leachate surrogate sample containing Li and Mn.

Diagram of a lithium purification process developed by CMI

Publication on electrochemical leaching process developed by CMI

CMI research on an electrochemical leach process developed by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory were formulated into a technical paper accepted by a journal.

An economic assessment of the dissolution unit step was compared to other dissolution chemistries and found that the OPEX was lower while having a greater CAPEX.