A team from Berkeley Lab and Florida State University has designed a new blueprint for solid-state batteries that are less dependent on specific chemical elements. Their work could advance efficient, affordable solid-state batteries for electric cars.
Tag: Critical materials
Story tips from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, January 2023
Story tips: Shuffling the load, a reveille for more biomass, designer molecules may help valuable minerals float, ‘T’ molecules huddle around rare earth elements
DOE Announces $19 Million to Small Businesses for Climate, Energy, and Scientific R&D
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a plan to provide $19 million for small businesses pursuing climate and energy research and development (R&D) projects as well the development of advanced scientific instrumentation through a funding opportunity announcement. The projects range from atmospheric science and critical materials to advanced computing and accelerator technologies.
Story tips: Tailor-made molecules, better battery electrolytes, beyond Moore’s Law and improving climate model accuracy
ORNL Story tips: Tailor-made molecules, better battery electrolytes, beyond Moore’s Law and improving climate model accuracy
Two CMI technologies named 2021 R&D100 Award winners
Two technologies developed by the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) won 2021 R&D 100 Awards in the Mechanical Devices/Materials category.
Setting a Scientific Foundation for Critical Materials
Critical materials are essential for many key technologies, including batteries and wind turbines. The Department of Energy is working to reduce the need for them, recycle them, and expand domestic sources of them.
DOE Awards $30M to Secure Domestic Supply Chain of Critical Materials
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $30 million in funding for 13 national lab and university-led research projects to develop new technologies that will help secure the supply of critical materials that build clean energy technologies.
U.S. Department of Energy Announces $30M for Research to Secure Domestic Supply Chain of Critical Elements and Minerals
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $30 million to support scientific research that will ensure American businesses can reliably tap into a domestic supply of critical elements and minerals, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, needed to produce clean energy technologies.
Making it tougher: Samarium cobalt magnet improvements planned in Ames Lab partnership
Ames Laboratory will partner with Electron Energy Corporation to improve a mainstay of magnet technology– the samarium cobalt (SmCo) magnet.

Geothermal Brines Could Propel California’s Green Economy
Deep beneath the surface of the Salton Sea, a shallow lake in California’s Imperial County, sits an immense reserve of critical metals that, if unlocked, could power the state’s green economy for years to come. These naturally occurring metals are dissolved in geothermal brine, a byproduct of geothermal energy production. Now the race is on to develop technology to efficiently extract one of the most valuable metals from the brine produced by the geothermal plants near the Salton Sea: lithium.
Ultrafast lasers probe elusive chemistry at the liquid-liquid interface
Real-time measurements captured by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory provide missing insight into chemical separations to recover cobalt, a critical raw material used to make batteries and magnets for modern technologies.