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Future Prospects of Paper Batteries: A Review

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July 29, 2022

Scientists Invent a Paper Battery—Just Add Water

A new disposable battery is made of paper and other sustainable materials and is activated with a few drops of water

By Anna Blaustein

Photograph of a stencil-printed two-cell paper battery with a design that spells the name of the authors' research institution (Empa). Both of the cells are separated by a water barrier.

Alexandre Poulin

Discarded electronics are piling up fast, pushing researchers to explore creative ways to reduce this e-waste . Now one team has crafted a water-activated disposable battery made of paper and other sustainable materials.

The wires, screens and batteries that make up our devices—not to mention the plastic, metal and other materials that encase them—are filling up landfills with hazardous debris. Some e-waste is relatively large: old flip phones and air conditioners, for instance. Other e-waste is more insidious, such as electronic single-use medical diagnostic kits, environmental sensors, and smart labels that contain disposable batteries and other equipment.

“It’s these small batteries that are big problems,” says University of California, Irvine, public health scientist Dele Ogunseitan, who is a green technology researcher and adviser for major tech companies and was not involved in developing the battery. “Nobody really pays attention to where they end up.”

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Researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) are working to address this problem. Their new paper in Scientific Reports describes a water-activated paper battery developed from environmentally friendly materials that could eventually present a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries common in low-power devices.

The paper battery has the same key components as standard batteries but packages them differently. Like a typical chemical battery, it has a positively charged side called a cathode, a negatively charged side called an anode, and a conductive material called an electrolyte between the two. A traditional battery’s components are encased in plastic and metal; in the new battery, the anode and cathode are inks printed onto the front and back of a piece of paper. That paper is infused with salt, which dissolves when the paper is dampened with water. The resulting saltwater solution acts as the electrolyte.

Sustainable materials were a prerequisite for the researchers, who considered only nontoxic and abundant ingredients to create their device. “We were fairly confident that we would have something that would work in the end, but developing these materials and ink systems is far from trivial,” says Gustav Nyström, head of the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory and senior author of the study. After trying hundreds of formulations for the battery components, the researchers settled on a graphite ink to make the cathode, a zinc ink for the anode, and salt-infused paper to create the electrolyte.

When the paper is dry, the battery is shelf-stable. Add just a couple of drops of water, however, and the engrained salt dissolves, allowing electrons to flow. Once the paper is moistened, the battery activates within 20 seconds. At that point, if the battery is not connected to an electronic device, it has a consistent voltage of 1.2 volts. (For comparison, AA batteries have a voltage of about 1.5 volts.) The new battery’s operating performance declines as the paper dries. When the scientists rewet the paper during testing, the battery regained functionality and lasted an hour before beginning to dry out again.

Although the researchers demonstrated that their battery could power an alarm clock, disposable paper batteries are unlikely to replace standard AAs on store shelves. Instead Nyström envisions a future where these batteries are embedded in diagnostic tests and environmental sensors, ideally with other sustainable components such as screens and packaging.

That future may not be so far off. It is hard to predict a time line for manufacturing such items at scale, but Nyström says he is in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into products within the next two to five years. “The performance that you see on this device, I think, is sufficient for a lot of these applications already,” he says. It is mostly a matter of scaling up production and integrating the batteries into systems such as diagnostic tests and environmental sensors.

“This is work that really starts with the development of sustainable materials,” Nyström explains. From there, he says, “I think we were able to create something that is quite useful.”

Paper Batteries

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• First Online: 01 January 2015
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• Critika Agrawal 6 ,
• Bhaskar Sharma 6 ,
• Deepak Bhojwani 6 &
• Shalini Rajawat 6  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 327))

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This paper gives a thorough insight on this relatively revolutionizing and satisfying solution of energy storage through paper batteries and provides an in-depth analysis of the same. A paper battery is a flexible, ultra-thin energy storage and production device formed by combining carbon nanotubes with a conventional sheet of cellulose-based paper [ 1 ]. A paper battery can function both as a high-energy battery and supercapacitor, combining two discrete components that are separate in traditional electronics. This combination allows the battery to provide both long-term steady power production and bursts of energy. Being biodegradable, lightweight, and non-toxic, flexible paper batteries have potential adaptability to power the next generation of electronics, medical devices, and hybrid vehicles, allowing for radical new designs and medical technologies. The paper is aimed at understanding and analyzing the properties and characteristics of paper batteries, to study its advantages, potential applications, limitations, and disadvantages. This paper also aims at highlighting the construction and various methods of production of paper battery and looks for alternative means of mass production.

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Agrawal, C., Sharma, B., Bhojwani, D., Rajawat, S. (2015). Paper Batteries. In: Vijay, V., Yadav, S., Adhikari, B., Seshadri, H., Fulwani, D. (eds) Systems Thinking Approach for Social Problems. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 327. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2141-8_20

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MIT Technology Review

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What’s next for batteries

Expect new battery chemistries for electric vehicles and a manufacturing boost thanks to government funding this year.

• Casey Crownhart archive page

Every year the world runs more and more on batteries. Electric vehicles passed 10% of global vehicle sales in 2022, and they’re on track to reach 30% by the end of this decade . 

Policies around the world are only going to accelerate this growth: recent climate legislation in the US is pumping billions into battery manufacturing and incentives for EV purchases. The European Union, and several states in the US, passed bans on gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035 . 

The transition will require lots of batteries—and better and cheaper ones. 

Most EVs today are powered by lithium-ion batteries, a decades-old technology that’s also used in laptops and cell phones. All those years of development have helped push prices down and improve performance, so today’s EVs are approaching the price of gas-powered cars and can go for hundreds of miles between charges. Lithium-ion batteries are also finding new applications, including electricity storage on the grid that can help balance out intermittent renewable power sources like wind and solar. 

But there is still lots of room for improvement. Academic labs and companies alike are hunting for ways to improve the technology—boosting capacity, speeding charging time, and cutting costs. The goal is even cheaper batteries that will provide cheap storage for the grid and allow EVs to travel far greater distances on a charge.

At the same time, concerns about supplies of key battery materials like cobalt and lithium are pushing a search for alternatives to the standard lithium-ion chemistry. 

In the midst of the soaring demand for EVs and renewable power and an explosion in battery development, one thing is certain: batteries will play a key role in the transition to renewable energy. Here’s what to expect in 2023.

A radical rethink

Some dramatically different approaches to EV batteries could see progress in 2023, though they will likely take longer to make a commercial impact.

One advance to keep an eye on this year is in so-called solid-state batteries. Lithium-ion batteries and related chemistries use a liquid electrolyte that shuttles charge around; solid-state batteries replace this liquid with ceramics or other solid materials. 

This swap unlocks possibilities that pack more energy into a smaller space, potentially improving the range of electric vehicles. Solid-state batteries could also move charge around faster, meaning shorter charging times. And because some solvents used in electrolytes can be flammable, proponents of solid-state batteries say they improve safety by cutting fire risk. 

Solid-state batteries can use a wide range of chemistries, but a leading candidate for commercialization uses lithium metal . Quantumscape , for one, is focused on that technology and raised hundreds of millions in funding before going public in 2020. The company has a deal with Volkswagen that could put its batteries in cars by 2025.  

But completely reinventing batteries has proved difficult, and lithium-metal batteries have seen concerns about degradation over time, as well as manufacturing challenges. Quantumscape announced in late December it had delivered samples to automotive partners for testing, a significant milestone on the road to getting solid-state batteries into cars. Other solid-state-battery players, like Solid Power , are also working to build and test their batteries. But while they could reach major milestones this year as well, their batteries won’t make it into vehicles on the road in 2023. 

Solid-state batteries aren’t the only new technology to watch out for. Sodium-ion batteries also swerve sharply from lithium-ion chemistries common today. These batteries have a design similar to that of lithium-ion batteries, including a liquid electrolyte, but instead of relying on lithium, they use sodium as the main chemical ingredient. Chinese battery giant CATL reportedly plans to begin mass-producing them in 2023. 

Sodium-ion batteries may not improve performance, but they could cut costs because they rely on cheaper, more widely available materials than lithium-ion chemistries do. But it’s not clear whether these batteries will be able to meet needs for EV range and charging time, which is why several companies going after the technology, like US-based Natron , are targeting less demanding applications to start, like stationary storage or micromobility devices such as e-bikes and scooters. 

Today, the market for batteries aimed at stationary grid storage is small—about one-tenth the size of the market for EV batteries, according to Yayoi Sekine , head of energy storage at energy research firm BloombergNEF. But demand for electricity storage is growing as more renewable power is installed, since major renewable power sources like wind and solar are variable, and batteries can help store energy for when it’s needed. 

Lithium-ion batteries aren’t ideal for stationary storage, even though they’re commonly used for it today. While batteries for EVs are getting smaller, lighter, and faster, the primary goal for stationary storage is to cut costs. Size and weight don’t matter as much for grid storage, which means different chemistries will likely win out. 

One rising star in stationary storage is iron , and two players could see progress in the coming year. Form Energy is developing an iron-air battery that uses a water-based electrolyte and basically stores energy using reversible rusting. The company recently announced a $760 million manufacturing facility in Weirton, West Virginia, scheduled to begin construction in 2023. Another company, ESS , is building a different type of iron battery that employs similar chemistry; it has begun manufacturing at its headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Shifts within the standard

Lithium-ion batteries keep getting better and cheaper, but researchers are tweaking the technology further to eke out greater performance and lower costs.

Some of the motivation comes from the price volatility of battery materials, which could drive companies to change chemistries. “It’s a cost game,” Sekine says.

Cathodes are typically one of the most expensive parts of a battery, and a type of cathode called NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) is the dominant variety in EV batteries today. But those three elements, in addition to lithium, are expensive, so cutting some or all of them could help decrease costs. 

This year could be a breakout year for one alternative: lithium iron phosphate (LFP), a low-cost cathode material sometimes used for lithium-ion batteries. 

Recent improvements in LFP chemistry and manufacturing have helped boost the performance of these batteries, and companies are moving to adopt the technology: LFP market share is growing quickly , from about 10% of the global EV market in 2018 to about 40% in 2022. Tesla is already using LFP batteries in some vehicles, and automakers like Ford and Volkswagen announced that they plan to start offering some EV models with the chemistry too.

Though battery research tends to focus on cathode chemistries, anodes are also in line to get a makeover.

Most anodes in lithium-ion batteries today, whatever their cathode makeup, use graphite to hold the lithium ions. But alternatives like silicon could help increase energy density and speed up charging.

Silicon anodes have been the subject of research for years, but historically they haven’t had a long enough lifetime to last in products. Now though, companies are starting to expand production of the materials.

In 2021, startup Sila began producing silicon anodes for batteries in a wearable fitness device. The company was recently awarded a $100 million grant from the Department of Energy to help build a manufacturing facility in Moses Lake, Washington. The factory will serve Sila’s partnership with Mercedes-Benz and is expected to produce materials for EV batteries starting in 2025.

Other startups are working to blend silicon and graphite together for anodes. OneD Battery Sciences , which has partnered with GM, and Sionic Energy could take additional steps toward commercialization this year.  

Policies shaping products

The Inflation Reduction Act , which was passed in late 2022, sets aside nearly $370 billion in funding for climate and clean energy, including billions for EV and battery manufacturing. “Everybody’s got their mind on the IRA,” says Yet-Ming Chiang , a materials researcher at MIT and founder of multiple battery companies.

The IRA will provide loans and grants to battery makers in the US, boosting capacity. In addition, EV tax credits in the law incentivize automakers to source battery materials in the US or from its free-trade partners and manufacture batteries in North America. Because of both the IRA’s funding and the EV tax credit restrictions, automakers will continue announcing new manufacturing capacity in the US and finding new ways to source materials.

All that means there will be more and more demand for the key ingredients in lithium-ion batteries, including lithium, cobalt, and nickel. One possible outcome from the IRA incentives is an increase in already growing interest around battery recycling . While there won’t be enough EVs coming off the road anytime soon to meet the demand for some crucial materials, recycling is starting to heat up.

CATL and other Chinese companies have led in battery recycling, but the industry could see significant growth in other major EV markets like North America and Europe this year. Nevada-based Redwood Materials and Li-Cycle , which is headquartered in Toronto, are building facilities and working to separate and purify key battery metals like lithium and nickel to be reused in batteries. 

Li-Cycle is set to begin commissioning its main recycling facility in 2023. Redwood Materials has started producing its first product, a copper foil, from its facility outside Reno, Nevada, and recently announced plans to build its second facility beginning this year in Charleston, South Carolina.

With the flood of money from the IRA and other policies around the world fueling demand for EVs and their batteries, 2023 is going to be a year to watch.

Climate change and energy

The problem with plug-in hybrids their drivers..

Plug-in hybrids are often sold as a transition to EVs, but new data from Europe shows we’re still underestimating the emissions they produce.

Harvard has halted its long-planned atmospheric geoengineering experiment

The decision follows years of controversy and the departure of one of the program’s key researchers.

• James Temple archive page

Decarbonizing production of energy is a quick win 

Clean technologies, including carbon management platforms, enable the global energy industry to play a crucial role in the transition to net zero.

• ADNOC archive page

The hard lessons of Harvard’s failed geoengineering experiment

Some observers argue the end of SCoPEx should mark the end of such proposals. Others say any future experiments should proceed in markedly different ways.

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Batteries articles from across Nature Portfolio

A battery is a device that stores energy in chemical form and can convert it into electric energy through electrochemical reactions.

Enhanced redox with hetero-halogens

Aqueous batteries have drawbacks related to their low energy densities. Now, highly concentrated hetero-halogen electrolytes can be used to enable fast multielectron transfer, leading to cost-effective, reversible and high-energy-density aqueous batteries.

• Vikram Singh
• Hye Ryung Byon

Robotic synthesis decoded through phase diagram mastery

Selection principles for precursors are decoded from phase diagrams and applied to the synthesis of inorganic oxide materials.

• Jeffrey A. Bennett
• Milad Abolhasani

Hidden potential of lithium oxide

One of the major challenges in realizing lithium (Li)-metal batteries is the instability of Li metal in the electrolyte. Now, a study unveils the significant role of lithium oxide in protecting Li metal, thereby contributing to stable battery operation.

• Seongjae Ko
• Atsuo Yamada

Latest Research and Reviews

Near-strain-free anode architecture enabled by interfacial diffusion creep for initial-anode-free quasi-solid-state batteries

Initially anode-free batteries with garnet-type solid-state electrolytes suffer from internal strain by repeated Li plating/stripping. Here, the authors propose a near-strain-free anode architecture for interfacial diffusion of Li metal that suppresses volume expansion during cycling.

• Kwang Hee Kim
• Myung-Jin Lee
• Jong Hyeok Park

Consummating ion desolvation in hard carbon anodes for reversible sodium storage

Hard carbon is regarded as a promising negative electrode for Na-ion batteries but suffers from low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE). Here, the authors identify the time-dependent ion pre-desolvation on the nanopore of hard carbons, which remarkably improves the ICE by simply extending the aging time.

• Huijun Yang
• Haoshen Zhou

Passivation and corrosion of Al current collectors in lithium-ion batteries

Reversible multielectron transfer I − /IO 3 − cathode enabled by a hetero-halogen electrolyte for high-energy-density aqueous batteries

Aqueous batteries, such as iodide/iodate-based ones, confront challenges due to their low energy densities. Here the authors utilize hetero-halogen electrolytes to enable fast multielectron transfer, yielding high-energy-density aqueous batteries.

• Congxin Xie
• Xianfeng Li

Catalytic role of in-situ formed C-N species for enhanced Li 2 CO 3 decomposition

Sluggish kinetics of the CO 2 reactions lead to the accumulation of Li 2 CO 3 residuals, which hinders the cycling stability of Li-CO 2 batteries. Here, the authors reveal the catalytic role of in-situ formed C-N species in enhancing the reversibility of Li 2 CO 3 and cycle life of Li-CO 2 batteries.

• Fangli Zhang
• Wenchao Zhang
• Zaiping Guo

Novel Cu(II)-based metal–organic framework STAM-1 as a sulfur host for Li–S batteries

• V. Niščáková
• A. S. Fedorková

News and Comment

Unlocking the potential of ultrahigh-Ni cathodes via epitaxial entropy-assisted coating

An article in Nature Energy reports an epitaxial entropy-assisted oxide coating strategy to suppress the propagation of structural fatigue in ultrahigh-Ni cathodes while maintaining desired ion transport capacity.

• Chenyu Wang

Methylation enables high-voltage ether electrolytes for lithium metal batteries

Ether-based electrolytes are desired for lithium metal batteries owing to their low reduction potentials; however, they suffer from low anodic stability. Strategic methylation of ether solvents is shown to extend their electrochemical stability and facilitate the formation of LiF-rich interphases, enabling high-voltage lithium metal batteries while avoiding the use of fluorinated solvents.

Uncovering the impact of pressure on lithium-metal pouch cells with liquid electrolytes

Using a hybrid fixture, application of an appropriate external pressure on Li-metal pouch cells with a liquid electrolyte considerably reduces cell swelling. Mapping of the pressure distribution across the cell surface provides insight into the electroplating process that could inform strategies to overcome uneven Li plating on the Li-metal surface.

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Got tinnitus a device that tickles the tongue helps this musician find relief.

Allison Aubrey

After using the Lenire device for an hour each day for 12 weeks, Victoria Banks says her tinnitus is "barely noticeable." David Petrelli/Victoria Banks hide caption

After using the Lenire device for an hour each day for 12 weeks, Victoria Banks says her tinnitus is "barely noticeable."

Imagine if every moment is filled with a high-pitched buzz or ring that you can't turn off.

More than 25 million adults in the U.S., have a condition called tinnitus, according to the American Tinnitus Association. It can be stressful, even panic-inducing and difficult to manage. Dozens of factors can contribute to the onset of tinnitus, including hearing loss, exposure to loud noise or a viral illness.

There's no cure, but there are a range of strategies to reduce the symptoms and make it less bothersome, including hearing aids, mindfulness therapy , and one newer option – a device approved by the FDA to treat tinnitus using electrical stimulation of the tongue.

The device has helped Victoria Banks, a singer and songwriter in Nashville, Tenn., who developed tinnitus about three years ago.

"The noise in my head felt like a bunch of cicadas," Banks says. "It was terrifying." The buzz made it difficult for her to sing and listen to music. "It can be absolutely debilitating," she says.

Shots - Health News

Tinnitus bothers millions of americans. here's how to turn down the noise.

Banks tried taking dietary supplements , but those didn't help. She also stepped up exercise, but that didn't bring relief either. Then she read about a device called Lenire, which was approved by the FDA in March 2023. It includes a plastic mouthpiece with stainless steel electrodes that electrically stimulate the tongue. It is the first device of its kind to be approved for tinnitus.

"This had worked for other people, and I thought I'm willing to try anything at this point," Banks recalls.

She sought out audiologist Brian Fligor, who treats severe cases of tinnitus in the Boston area. Fligor was impressed by the results of a clinical trial that found 84% of participants who tried Lenire experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. He became one of the first providers in the U.S. to use the device with his patients. Fligor also served on an advisory panel assembled by the company who developed it.

"A good candidate for this device is somebody who's had tinnitus for at least three months," Fligor says, emphasizing that people should be evaluated first to make sure there's not an underlying medical issue.

Tinnitus often accompanies hearing loss, but Victoria Banks' hearing was fine and she had no other medical issue, so she was a good candidate.

Banks used the device for an hour each day for 12 weeks. During the hour-long sessions, the electrical stimulation "tickles" the tongue, she says. In addition, the device includes a set of headphones that play a series of tones and ocean-wave sounds.

The device works, in part, by shifting the brain's attention away from the buzz. We're wired to focus on important information coming into our brains, Fligor says. Think of it as a spotlight at a show pointed at the most important thing on the stage. "When you have tinnitus and you're frustrated or angry or scared by it, that spotlight gets really strong and focused on the tinnitus," Fligor says.

"It's the combination of what you're feeling through the nerves in your tongue and what you're hearing through your ears happening in synchrony that causes the spotlight in your brain to not be so stuck on the tinnitus," Fligor explains.

A clinical trial found 84% of people who used the device experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. Brian Fligor hide caption

A clinical trial found 84% of people who used the device experienced a significant reduction in symptoms.

"It unsticks your spotlight" and helps desensitize people to the perceived noise that their tinnitus creates, he says.

Banks says the ringing in her ears did not completely disappear, but now it's barely noticeable on most days.

"It's kind of like if I lived near a waterfall and the waterfall was constantly going," she says. Over time, the waterfall sound fades out of consciousness.

"My brain is now focusing on other things," and the buzz is no longer so distracting. She's back to listening to music, writing music, and performing music." I'm doing all of those things," she says.

When the buzz comes back into focus, Banks says a refresher session with the device helps.

A clinical trial found that 84% of people who tried Lenire , saw significant improvements in their condition. To measure changes, the participants took a questionnaire that asked them to rate how much tinnitus was impacting their sleep, sense of control, feelings of well-being and quality of life. After 12 weeks of using the device, participants improved by an average of 14 points.

"Where this device fits into the big picture, is that it's not a cure-all, but it's quickly become my go-to," for people who do not respond to other ways of managing tinnitus, Fligor says.

One down-side is the cost. Banks paid about $4,000 for the Lenire device, and insurance doesn't cover it. She put the expense on her credit card and paid it off gradually.

Fligor hopes that as the evidence of its effectiveness accumulates, insurers will begin to cover it. Despite the cost, more than 80% of participants in the clinical trial said they would recommend the device to a friend with tinnitus.

But, it's unclear how long the benefits last. Clinical trials have only evaluated Lenire over a 1-year period. "How durable are the effects? We don't really know yet," says audiologist Marc Fagelson, the scientific advisory committee chair of the American Tinnitus Association. He says research is promising but there's still more to learn.

Fagelson says the first step he takes with his patients is an evaluation for hearing loss. Research shows that hearing aids can be an effective treatment for tinnitus among people who have both tinnitus and hearing loss, which is much more common among older adults. An estimated one-third of adults 65 years of age and older who have hearing loss, also have tinnitus.

"We do see a lot of patients, even with very mild loss, who benefit from hearing aids," Fagelson says, but in his experience it's about 50-50 in terms of improving tinnitus. Often, he says people with tinnitus need to explore options beyond hearing aids.

Bruce Freeman , a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says he's benefitted from both hearing aids and Lenire. He was fitted for the device in Ireland where it was developed, before it was available in the U.S.

Freeman agrees that the ringing never truly disappears, but the device has helped him manage the condition. He describes the sounds that play through the device headphones as very calming and "almost hypnotic" and combined with the tongue vibration, it's helped desensitize him to the ring.

Freeman – who is a research scientist – says he's impressed with the results of research, including a study published in Nature, Scientific Reports that points to significant improvements among clinical trial participants with tinnitus.

Freeman experienced a return of his symptoms when he stopped using the device. "Without it the tinnitus got worse," he says. Then, when he resumed use, it improved.

Freeman believes his long-term exposure to noisy instruments in his research laboratory may have played a role in his condition, and also a neck injury from a bicycle accident that fractured his vertebra. "All of those things converged," he says.

Freeman has developed several habits that help keep the high-pitched ring out of his consciousness and maintain good health. "One thing that does wonders is swimming," he says, pointing to the swooshing sound of water in his ears. "That's a form of mindfulness," he explains.

When it comes to the ring of tinnitus, "it comes and goes," Freeman says. For now, it has subsided into the background, he told me with a sense of relief. "The last two years have been great," he says – a combination of the device, hearing aids and the mindfulness that comes from a swim.

This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh

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Critical Minerals Recovery from Electronic Waste

PNNL researchers achieve sustainable recovery of minerals from e-waste

Materials scientist Qingpu Wang of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and his colleagues developed a nontoxic method to recover valuable minerals from electronic waste. 

(Composite image by Melanie Hess-Robinson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

RICHLAND, Wash.—There’s some irony in the fact that devices that seem indispensable to modern life—mobile phones, personal computers, and anything battery-powered—depend entirely on minerals extracted from mining, one of the most ancient of human industries. Once their usefulness is spent, we typically return these objects to the Earth in landfills, by the millions.

But what if we could “mine” electronic waste (e-waste), recovering the useful minerals contained within them, instead of throwing them away? A clever method of recovering valuable minerals from e-waste, developed by a research team at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , is showing promise to do just that. Materials separation scientist Qingpu Wang will present recent success in selectively recovering manganese, magnesium, dysprosium, and neodymium, minerals critical to modern electronics, at the 2024 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting on April 25, 2024, in Seattle, WA .

Go with the flow

Just as a prism splits white light into a dazzling rainbow of colors based on distinct wavelengths, so too can metals be separated from one another using their individual properties. However, current separation methods are slow, as well as chemical- and energy-intensive. These barriers make the recovery of valuable minerals from e-waste streams economically unfeasible.

In contrast, the PNNL research team used a simple mixed-salt water-based solution and their knowledge of metal properties to separate valuable minerals in continuously flowing reaction chambers.

The method, detailed in two complementary research articles and presented this week, is based on the behavior of different metals when placed in a chemical reaction chamber where two different liquids flow together continuously. The research team exploited the tendency of metals to form solids at different rates over time to separate and purify them.

“Our goal is to develop an environmentally friendly and scalable separation process to recover valuable minerals from e-waste,” said Wang. “Here we showed that we can spatially separate and recover nearly pure rare earth elements without complex, expensive reagents or time-consuming processes.”

The research team, which included materials scientist Chinmayee Subban , who also holds a joint appointment with the University of Washington, first reported in February 2024 successfully separating two essential rare earth elements, neodymium and dysprosium, from a mixed liquid. The two separate and purified solids formed in the reaction chamber in 4 hours, versus the 30 hours typically needed for conventional separation methods. These two critical minerals are used to manufacture permanent magnets found in computer hard drives and wind turbines, among other uses. Until now, separating these two elements with very similar properties has been challenging. The ability to economically recover them from e-waste could open up a new market and source of these key minerals.

Recovering minerals from e-waste is not the only application for this separation technique. The research team is exploring the recovery of magnesium from sea water as well as from mining waste and salt lake brines.

“Next, we are modifying the design of our reactor to recover a larger amount of product efficiently,” added Wang.

Recovering manganese from simulated battery waste

Using a complementary technique , Wang and his colleague Elias Nakouzi , a PNNL materials scientist, showed that they can recover nearly pure manganese (>96%) from a solution that mimics dissolved lithium-ion battery waste. Battery-grade manganese is produced by a handful of companies globally and is used primarily in the cathode, or negative pole of the battery.

In this study, the research team used a gel-based system to separate the materials based on the different transport and reactivity rates of the metals in the sample.

“ The beauty in this process is its simplicity ,” Nakouzi said. “Rather than relying on high-cost or specialty materials, we pared things back to thinking about the basics of ion behavior. And that’s where we found inspiration.”

The team is expanding the scope of the research and will be scaling up the process through a new PNNL initiative, Non-Equilibrium Transport Driven Separations (NETS), which is developing environmentally friendly new separations to provide a robust, domestic supply chain of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

“We expect this approach to be broadly relevant to chemical separations from complex feed streams and diverse chemistries—enabling more sustainable materials extraction and processing,” said Nakouzi.

The research studies reported at MRS received support from a Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and the NETS initiative at PNNL.

Learn more about materials sciences careers at PNNL.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory draws on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry , Earth sciences , biology and data science to advance scientific knowledge and address challenges in sustainable energy and national security . Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science . For more information on PNNL, visit PNNL's News Center . Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and Instagram .

Published: April 23, 2024

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