Research Highlights

Complex oscillatory decrease with size in the diffusivity of epitaxially-supported 3D metal nanoclusters

Theoretical analysis reveals a complex oscillatory decay in the diffusivity of {100}-epitaxially supported fcc metal nanoclusters (NCs) with increasing size. NCs have a 3D structure for weak adhesion to oxide or other supports.
Results contrast traditional assumptions of monotonic decay with increasing size.

Catalytic Carbon–Oxygen Bond Cleavage

The oxophilicity of lanthanide complexes is leveraged for catalytic C–O cleavage via hydroboration. The proposed mechanism indicates that the reactive La-H is protected and activated as borate adduct, yielding high catalytic rates and turnover numbers.

Al-Ce alloys designated by Aluminum Association

CMI developed alloys that have passed key commercial milestone, and have been accorded official designations by The Aluminum Association, opening the door to global industrial applications

Ce-based gap magnets match high-temperature performance of neo

CMI research at Ames Laboratory Achievement showed that at certain temperatures a cerium-based magnet matches the energy product of and exceeds the coercivity of neodymium permanent magnets

Additive manufacturing NdFeB bonded magnets reach the gap magnet milestone

High-performance critical-element-free permanent magnets

CMI research at Ames Laboratory demonstrated that mechanochemical preprocessing is beneficial for nitrogen insertion/topotactic extraction

Lower-cost commercial grade Ce enhances performance and reduces cost in gap magnets

CMI research with lower-cost commercial grade cerium enhances performance and reduces cost in gap magnets. Also, the less costly “dirty” cerium samples showed as much as a 5% increase of both coercivity and magnetization, resulting in better energy product. 

CMI research on cover of journal: Sustainable urban mining of critical elements from magnet and electronic wastes

Journal publication on the acid-free leaching process for recycling rare-earth elements and cobalt from waste magnet and e-waste materials is published and highlighted as a supplementary cover in ACS high impact journal

Optimized shredding conditions enables improvement in leaching time for REEs in end-of-life hard disk drives (HDDs)

A HDD shredder designed to result in optimally shredded feedstock for acid-free dissolution and also minimize the amount of magnets attached to the cutters during shredding has been commissioned. Consequently, only ~60% of the original leaching time is required and a dissolution efficiency of ≥72% wt.% was obtained for HDDs.

Deciphering Complex Reaction Network for On-Demand Selective Chemical Production