Turning Waste into Wealth: Breakthrough in Metal Recovery from Copper Slag

Copper smelting, a critical process in metal production, often leads to the generation of slag containing valuable metals. Traditionally, this slag has been discarded, causing environmental issues and resource loss. A recent study introduce a method for recovering copper, lead, and zinc from copper smelting slag, addressing both environmental concerns and resource recovery.

How a Record-Breaking Copper Catalyst Converts CO2 Into Liquid Fuels

Since the 1970s, scientists have known that copper has a special ability to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels. But for many years, scientists have struggled to understand how this common metal works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy from electrons to chemically transform molecules into different products.

The Effects of Copper, Patient-Relevant Tissue Models, and Artificial Intelligence Featured in Sept. 2022 Issue of ToxSci

A new ToxPoint articles argues that “Copper Is the New Showstopper,” while a commentary calls for patient-relevant tissue models in the September 2022 issue of Toxicological Sciences (ToxSci), the official journal of the Society of Toxicology (SOT). Other featured articles…

Combining Two ‘Old Therapies’ Packs a Powerful Punch Against Pediatric Brain Tumors

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Italy’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart medical school have provided solid evidence that copper, the first metal used medicinally, may now have a new role — helping save children from a devastating central nervous system cancer known as medulloblastoma.

Battery parts can be recycled without crushing or melting

Researchers at Aalto University have discovered that electrodes in lithium batteries containing cobalt can be reused as is after being newly saturated with lithium. In comparison to traditional recycling, which typically extracts metals from crushed batteries by melting or dissolving them, the new process saves valuable raw materials, and likely also energy.

Scientists shed light on 140-year-old challenge in chemistry and physics

In recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers Babak Sadigh, Luis Zepeda-Ruiz and Jon Belof report on a new mechanism of solidification in copper that provides an atomistic view of Ostwald’s step rule and alters the fundamental understanding of nucleation at high pressure. They found that not only does the crystallization process proceed via a non-equilibrium phase, but that this phase can be kinetically stabilized by the temperature.

New Device Can Measure Toxic Lead Within Minutes

Rutgers researchers have created a miniature device for measuring trace levels of toxic lead in sediments at the bottom of harbors, rivers and other waterways within minutes – far faster than currently available laboratory-based tests, which take days. The affordable lab-on-a-chip device could also allow municipalities, water companies, universities, K-12 schools, daycares and homeowners to easily and swiftly test their water supplies. The research is published in the IEEE Sensors Journal.