SCI-FI-TEK

Fusion energy: ITER completes world’s largest and most powerful pulsed magnet system with major components built by USA, Russia, Europe, China

Landmark achievement towards fusion energy

ITER

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

The sixth module of the Central Solenoid, completed at General Atomics in April 2025. When combined with the five other completed modules, the Central Solenoid will form the center of the ITER tokamak and the pulsed magnet system. 

view more 

Credit: General Atomics / ITER

In a landmark achievement for fusion energy, ITER has completed all components for the world’s largest, most powerful pulsed superconducting electromagnet system.

ITER is an international collaboration of more than 30 countries to demonstrate the viability of fusion—the power of the sun and stars—as an abundant, safe, carbon-free energy source for the planet. 

The final component was the sixth module of the Central Solenoid, built and tested in the United States. When it is assembled at the ITER site in Southern France, the Central Solenoid will be the system’s most powerful magnet, strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

The Central Solenoid will work in tandem with six ring-shaped Poloidal Field (PF) magnets, built and delivered by Russia, Europe, and China.

The fully assembled pulsed magnet system will weigh nearly 3,000 tons. It will function as the electromagnetic heart of ITER’s donut-shaped reactor, called a Tokamak.

 

How does this pulsed superconducting electromagnet system work?

Step 1. A few grams of hydrogen fuel—deuterium and tritium gas—are injected into ITER’s gigantic Tokamak chamber.

Step 2. The pulsed magnet system sends an electrical current to ionize the hydrogen gas, creating a plasma, a cloud of charged particles.

Step 3. The magnets create an “invisible cage” that confines and shapes the ionized plasma.

Step 4. External heating systems raise the plasma temperature to 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times hotter than the core of the sun. 

Step 5. At this temperature, the atomic nuclei of plasma particles combine and fuse, releasing massive heat energy.

 

A tenfold energy gain

At full operation, ITER is expected to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power from only 50 megawatts of input heating power, a tenfold gain. At this level of efficiency, the fusion reaction largely self-heats, becoming a “burning plasma.”

By integrating all the systems needed for fusion at industrial scale, ITER is serving as a massive, complex research laboratory for its 30-plus member countries, providing the knowledge and data needed to optimize commercial fusion power.

 

A global model

ITER’s geopolitical achievement is also remarkable: the sustained collaboration of ITER’s seven members—China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States. Thousands of scientists and engineers have contributed components from hundreds of factories on three continents to build a single machine. 

Pietro Barabaschi, ITER Director-General, says, “What makes ITER unique is not only its technical complexity but the framework of international cooperation that has sustained it through changing political landscapes.”

“This achievement proves that when humanity faces existential challenges like climate change and energy security, we can overcome national differences to advance solutions.” 

“The ITER Project is the embodiment of hope. With ITER, we show that a sustainable energy future and a peaceful path forward are possible.” 

 

Major progress

In 2024, ITER reached 100 percent of its construction targets. With most of the major components delivered, the ITER Tokamak is now in assembly phase. In April 2025, the first vacuum vessel sector module was inserted into the Tokamak Pit, about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

Extending collaboration to the private sector

The past five years have witnessed a surge in private sector investment in fusion energy R&D. In November 2023, the ITER Council recognized the value and opportunity represented by this trend. 

They encouraged the ITER Organization and its Domestic Agencies to actively engage with the private sector, to transfer ITER’s accumulated knowledge to accelerate progress toward making fusion a reality.

In 2024, ITER launched a private sector fusion engagement project, with multiple channels for sharing knowledge, documentation, data, and expertise, as well as collaboration on R&D. This tech transfer initiative includes sharing information on ITER’s global fusion supply chain, another way to return value to Member governments and their companies.

In April 2025, ITER hosted a public-private workshop to collaborate on the best technological innovation to solve fusion’s remaining challenges.

The ITER experiment under construction in southern France. The tokamak building is the mirrored structure at center. Courtesy ITER Organization/EJF Riche.

How have ITER’s Members contributed to this achievement?

Under the ITER Agreement, Members contribute most of the cost of building ITER in the form of building and supplying components. This arrangement means that financing from each Member goes primarily to their own companies, to manufacture ITER’s challenging technology. In doing so, these companies also drive innovation and gain expertise, creating a global fusion supply chain.

Europe, as the Host Member, contributes 45 percent of the cost of the ITER Tokamak and its support systems. China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States each contribute 9 percent, but all Members get access to 100 percent of the intellectual property.

United States

The United States has built the Central Solenoid, made of six modules, plus a spare. 

The U.S. has also delivered to ITER the “exoskeleton” support structure that will enable the Central Solenoid to withstand the extreme forces it will generate. The exoskeleton is comprised of more than 9,000 individual parts, manufactured by eight U.S. suppliers.

Additionally, the U.S. has fabricated about 8 percent of the Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductors used in ITER’s Toroidal Field magnets.

Russia

Russia has delivered the 9-meter-diameter ring-shaped Poloidal Field magnet that will crown the top of the ITER Tokamak.

Working closely with Europe, Russia has also produced approximately 120 tonnes of Niobium-Titanium (NbTi) superconductors, comprising about 40 percent of the total required for ITER’s Poloidal Field magnets.

Additionally, Russia has produced about 20 percent of the Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductors for ITER’s Toroidal Field magnets.

And Russia has manufactured the giant busbars that will deliver power to the magnets at the required voltage and amperage, as well as the upper port plugs for ITER’s vacuum vessel sectors.

Europe

Europe has manufactured four of the ring-shaped Poloidal Field magnets onsite in France, ranging from 17 to 24 meters in diameter. 

Europe has worked closely with Russia to manufacture the Niobium-Titanium (NbTi) superconductors used in PF magnets 1 and 6. 

Europe has also delivered 10 of ITER’s Toroidal Field magnets and has produced a substantial portion of the Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductors used in these TF magnets. 

And Europe is creating five of the nine sectors of the Tokamak vacuum vessel, the donut-shaped chamber where fusion will take place.

China

China, under an arrangement with Europe, has manufactured a 10-metre Poloidal Field magnet. It has already been installed at the bottom of the partially assembled ITER Tokamak. 

China has also contributed the Niobium-Titanium (NbTi) superconductors for PF magnets 2, 3, 4, and 5, about 65 percent of the PF magnet total—plus about 8 percent of the Toroidal Field magnet superconductors. 

Additionally, China is contributing 18 superconducting Correction Coil magnets, positioned around the Tokamak to fine-tune the plasma reactions. 

China has delivered the 31 magnet feeders, the multi-lane thruways that will deliver the electricity to power ITER’s electromagnets as well as the liquid helium to cool the magnets to -269 degrees Celsius, the temperature needed for superconductivity.

Japan

Japan has produced and sent to the United States the 43 kilometers of Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductor strand that was used to create the Central Solenoid modules.

Japan has also produced 8 of the 18 Toroidal Field (TF) magnets, plus a spare—as well as all the casing structures for the TF magnets.

Japan also produced 25 percent of the Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductors that went into the Toroidal Field magnets.

Korea

Korea has produced the tooling used to pre-assemble ITER’s largest components, enabling ITER to fit the Toroidal Field coils and thermal shields to the vacuum vessel sectors with millimetric precision. 

Korea has also manufactured 20 percent of the Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductors for the Toroidal Field magnets.

Additionally, Korea has manufactured the thermal shields that provide a physical barrier between the ultra-hot fusion plasma and the ultra-cold magnets. 

And Korea has delivered four of the nine sectors of the Tokamak vacuum vessel.

India

India has fabricated the ITER Cryostat, the 30-metre high, 30-metre diameter thermos that houses the entire ITER Tokamak.

India has also provided the cryolines that distribute the liquid helium to cool ITER’s magnets. 

Additionally, India has been responsible for delivering ITER’s cooling water system, the in-wall shielding of the Tokamak, and multiple parts of the external plasma heating systems.

In total, ITER’s magnet systems will comprise 10,000 tons of superconducting magnets, with a combined stored magnetic energy of 51 Gigajoules. The raw material to fabricate these magnets consisted of more than 100,000 kilometers of superconducting strand, fabricated in 9 factories in six countries.

* * *

What are the technical specifications for each of ITER’s magnet systems?

Central Solenoid (cylindrical magnet)

Height: 18 meters (59 feet)
Diameter: 4.25 meters (14 feet)
Weight: ~1,000 tonnes
Magnetic field strength: 13 Tesla (280,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field)
Stored magnetic energy: 6.4 Gigajoules
Will initiate and sustain a plasma current of 15 MA for 300-500 second pulses
Fabricated in the United States
Material: Niobium-tin (Nb₃Sn) superconducting strand produced in Japan
Cooling: operated at 4.5 Kelvin (-269°C) using liquid helium cryogenics to maintain superconductivity
Structure (exoskeleton): built to withstand 100 MN (meganewtons) of force—equivalent to twice the thrust of a space shuttle launch.

Poloidal Field Magnets (ring-shaped magnets)

Diameters: varying in range from 9 meters (PF1) to 10 meters (PF6) to 17 meters (PF2, PF5) to 25 meters (PF3, PF4)
Weight: from 160 to 400 tonnes
Fabricated in Russia, Europe (France) and China
Material: niobium-titanium (NbTi) superconducting strand produced in Europe, China, and Russia
Cooling: operated at 4.5 Kelvin (-269°C) using liquid helium cryogenics to maintain superconductivity

Toroidal Field Coils (D-shaped magnets, completed in late 2023)

Each coil: 17 meters high × 9 meters wide
Weight: ~360 tonnes each
Fabricated in Europe (Italy) and Japan
Material: niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) superconducting strand produced in Europe, Korea, Russia, and the United States
Cooling: operated at 4.5 Kelvin (-269°C) using liquid helium to maintain superconductivity

Correction Coils and Magnet Feeders

Correction Coils: manufactured by China; critical for fine plasma stability adjustments.
Magnet Feeders: deliver cryogenics, electrical power, and instrumentation signals to the magnets; also produced by China.

* * * * *

www.ITER.org

ITER is an international collaboration of more than 30 countries to demonstrate the viability of fusion—the power of the sun and stars—as an abundant, safe, carbon-free energy source for the planet.

Installation of the first superconducting magnet, Poloidal Field Coil #6, in the tokamak pit at the ITER construction site. The Central Solenoid will be mounted in the center after the vacuum vessel has been assembled.

Credit

ITER

 

Bacterial villain behind Lake Erie's 'potent toxin' unveiled by U-M study

University of Michigan

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

In the warm summertime waters of Lake Erie, cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, can proliferate out of control, creating algal blooms that produce toxins at a rate that can harm wildlife and human health. 

 

Now, University of Michigan researchers have identified the organism responsible for producing the toxins: a type of cyanobacteria called Dolichospermum. 

 

Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, can be composed of different types of cyanobacteria, which can produce different types of toxins. Knowing which cyanobacteria produces which toxins can help scientists track and respond to harmful algal blooms.

 

A bloom in 2014 produced a toxin called microcystin, which threatened Toledo's drinking water supply. In 2007, scientists first detected evidence of a potent toxin called saxitoxin in Lake Erie, but they weren't sure which organism produced it. Saxitoxins, a group of closely related neurotoxins, are among the most potent natural toxins known. 

 

"The main advantage of knowing which organism produces the toxin is that it helps us understand the conditions that cause toxin production—that is, what conditions make those organisms successful," said Gregory Dick, professor of earth and environmental sciences and of environment and sustainability. "Such information can help guide policy and management, though we're still a long way from that in this case." 

 

To identify the cyanobacteria, U-M researchers took samples from HABs as they occurred in the lake. Then, first author Paul Den Uyl used what's called "shotgun" sequencing. This method sequences all of the DNA in a given sample of lakewater. Den Uyl used these DNA sequences to piece together a whole genome sequence, then searched within that sequence for genes that encode the toxin saxitoxin.

 

The researchers found that there were several strains of Dolichospermum in the lake, but only some of them produce saxitoxin. While they aren't sure why some produce the toxin and others don't, the researchers tried to parse the environmental factors that promote saxitoxin production.

 

To do this, they took samples from different locations on the lake throughout each season and quantified how much of the gene associated with saxitoxin was present in each sample. The researchers tended to find more of the gene in warm water. 

 

"That is interesting because we do know that the lakes are changing with climate change," said Den Uyl, a scientist at U-M's Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, or CIGLR. "With the warming of the lakes, one of the big questions is, how is that going to change the biological communities, including harmful cyanobacterial blooms?"

 

The researchers also found that the gene associated with saxitoxin production was less likely to be in areas that had higher concentrations of ammonium. They think this may be because Dolichospermum has an unusual adaptation: It has a gene that suggests it can use nitrogen in the form of dinitrogen, which is abundant in the atmosphere—not something many organisms can do, according to Dick.

 

"One of the neat things about having the whole genome is you can see everything the organism can do, at least theoretically," said Dick, who is also director of CIGLR. "You have the whole blueprint for what the organism can do, and we do see the capability of obtaining fixed nitrogen from the water. It's just that getting it in the form of dinitrogen gas is kind of a superpower. Not a lot of organisms can do that, and it makes them more competitive under those conditions."

 

The researchers say they have been tracking saxitoxin in the lake for nine years, but that doesn't provide enough data to tell whether saxitoxin production will increase as the lakes warm.

 

"But now that we know who's producing it, I think we can keep a better watch on these organisms and we can also directly assess the gene abundance over time," Dick said. "We plan to continue monitoring the abundance of this organism, but it's too early to tell if it's becoming more abundant. It's just a correlation, but that correlation with temperature is concerning."

 

Their findings are published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

 

Study: Genomic Identification and Characterization of Saxitoxin Producing Cyanobacteria in Western Lake Erie Harmful Algal Blooms (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c10888)

 

---

Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.4c10888 

 

Engineers develop wearable heart attack detection tech

Researchers develop efficient, accurate technology to detect heart attacks in real time

University of Mississippi

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Researchers are developing a lightweight, efficient chip that can be implanted on wearable devices to detect heart attacks in real time. Detecting a heart attack as it happens can save patients critical time in getting lifesaving treatment.

view more 

Credit: Graphic by John McCustion/University Marketing and Communications

Every second counts when it comes to detecting and treating heart attacks. That’s where a new technology from the University of Mississippi comes in to identify heart attacks faster and more accurately than traditional methods.  

In a study published in Intelligent Systems, Blockchain and Communication Technologies, electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Kasem Khalil shows that a new technology developed at his lab could improve heart attack detection methods without sacrificing accuracy.   

“For this issue, a few minutes or even a few extra seconds is going to give this person the care they need before it becomes worse,” Khalil said. “Compared to traditional methods, our technology is up to two times faster, while still highly accurate. 

“Our target was not only to increase performance for classifying heart attacks. We are also focusing on the design. If we want to make this device a usable machine for any person, that means it has to be something lightweight and economic.”  

In the United States, someone dies from a heart attack every 40 seconds. Heart disease – a collection of underlying conditions that can lead to a heart attack – is the leading cause of death in the United States.  

Khalil and his team used artificial intelligence and advanced mathematics to design a chip that can analyze electrocardiograms, known as ECGs – graphs of the heart’s electrical signals – and detect a heart attack in real-time.  

The resulting technology is lightweight and energy efficient enough to be embedded in wearable devices while still being 92.4% accurate – higher than many current methods.  

“We wanted to be able to implement this in a way that is real,” said Tamador Mohaidat, a doctoral student in Khalil’s lab and co-author of the publication. “This is portable hardware that can be in wearable or monitoring devices.  

“This method will save lives because we can monitor the heart in real time.”  

Mohaidat, from Irbid, Jordan, focused on creating the artificial neural network, while Md. Rahat Kader Khan focused on building the software for the device. Khan, a second-year computer engineering graduate student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, said the Khalil lab is unique in that it focuses on all aspects of the technology they hope to create.  

“Some labs only focus on the software part, and they don’t think about the hardware that’s needed,” Khan said. “But in our lab, we focus on the whole product. Each of us has a responsibility, but we work together.  

“That’s how we optimize the whole system, by focusing on the overall architecture.”  

Current methods of heart attack detection often must happen in a medical facility. A patient experiencing chest pain or who suspects they’re having a heart attack must first go through an electrocardiogram or blood tests to diagnose their condition.  

All of that takes time that a patient might not have, the researchers said. If a wearable device such as a watch or a phone can cut down on diagnosis time, patients could get faster treatment.  

“When a patient is having a heart attack, the sooner you can treat them, the less likely they are to have permanent damage,” Khalil said. “There’s a huge time-sensitive element to heart attacks.”  

While Khalil and his team continue developing the technology, he said he sees other health care applications for these devices.  

“We want to be able to predict or identify many problems using technology like this,” he said. “Whether that’s heart attacks or seizures or dementia. The detection of a disease or condition depends on the disease itself, but we’re working to find faster, more efficient ways of doing that.”  

---

DOI

10.1007/978-3-031-82377-0_44 

Article Title

Enhanced Heart Attack Detection with Neural Networks

 

Persons living with HIV can be treated safely, effectively with long-acting antiretroviral therapy at home

Medical University of South Carolina

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

MUSC Health Infectious Diseases clinician Dr. Eric Meissner in his laboratory.

view more 

Credit: Medical University of South Carolina. Photo by Clif Rhodes

Long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy (ART) can be administered at home to persons living with HIV as safely and effectively by a health care professional as in the clinic, with equally high patient satisfaction rates, according to a new study conducted by MUSC Health Infectious Diseases clinician Eric Meissner, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Medicine. The findings of the study were published in March in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

“This project was designed at the time that injectable treatment for HIV infection received approval, and so we were inspired to try to think of new ways for the persons we care for to be able to access it,” said Meissner.

In the past three decades, ART has profoundly changed the lives of those living with HIV, transforming what was once considered a death sentence into something more akin to a manageable chronic disease. In 2023, almost 31 million people received ART, or about 77% of all people living with HIV. Studies have shown that 9 in 10 people who take ART medications as prescribed will have undetectable levels of the virus within a year. People who achieve undetectable levels early in the course of their disease can live long lives, and they are unlikely to spread the virus to others, including unborn children. It is estimated that ART saves more than a million lives each year.

Unfortunately, in 2022, fewer than 65% of persons living with HIV in the U.S. achieved undetectable levels of the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggesting that patients did not always take ART as directed. When orally administered, ART must be taken daily. Some patients find it burdensome to take the medications daily or fear being stigmatized when they fill their prescriptions at a public pharmacy. Such barriers can discourage patients from taking the ART medications as their doctors suggest and can prevent them from attaining undetectable virus levels.

Long-acting injectable ART could be an answer, as it is given much more infrequently. Initially prescribed once monthly for persons living with HIV who did not gain full benefit from oral administration, long-acting injectable ART now need be administered only once every other month. Studies have shown that these long-acting injectables make it more likely that patients will take medications as prescribed.

“For some people who struggle with daily pill medications for HIV, there have been studies showing that the injectable treatment does improve adherence and clinical outcomes,” said Meissner.

These injections must be given by a health care professional and are typically given when the patient is in the clinic. When long-acting injectables were approved for persons living with HIV who had not achieved undetectable limits with oral administration, Meissner took things a step further to determine whether long-acting injectables could be administered safely and effectively at home instead of in the clinic.

In Meissner’s study, 33 participants who had been prescribed long-acting injectable ART by their physicians were offered the choice of receiving the therapy in the MUSC Health Infectious Disease Clinic or at home. The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute provided regulatory and survey support for the study.

Slightly more than half of participants (18) chose the clinic and 15 chose to receive their treatments at home. Participants were free to change their minds at any time and opt for the other treatment group.

The study found that, despite this freedom, most participants stuck with their original treatment choices. All patients in both groups who completed 12 months of treatment attained virological suppression. Patient satisfaction scores were also very high for both groups, and no serious safety issues were observed for either group. More than half of participants experienced some temporary injection-site irritation, but there was no difference between the in-clinic and at-home groups.

For those choosing at-home therapy, Meissner and his team coordinated with the pharmacy to mail patients their medications, which were then stored in the refrigerator until the visit by the licensed practical nurse  (LPN) who would give the injection. The same LPN administered long-acting injectable ART for all participants receiving therapy at home, and the study found high patient satisfaction with the continuity of care that this provided.

The study answered another of Meissner’s questions – what influenced participants to choose either the clinic or at home. The answer for both was the same: convenience.

“Convenience was far and away the most commonly stated reason driving the preference for where to receive treatment,” said Meissner. “I think that relates to the fact that a significant percentage of our cohort doesn’t live right next to our clinic. Many may have difficulty with the time and the logistics of transportation required to come to our downtown clinic.”

Despite the high patient satisfaction with at-home administration of long-acting injectables, it will be challenging to make this a routine option for persons living with HIV. Providing the medication by mail and scheduling the LPN visits required considerable logistical coordination by staff. Currently, insurance does not reimburse for these additional steps, making it unlikely that physicians will be able to offer this option. If these challenges can be overcome, however, Meissner’s study suggests that many patients would benefit and appreciate the option, which could encourage them to follow the treatment course set out by their physicians.

“As to administering injectable HIV treatment in someone's home, we found it to be safe, feasible and associated with high satisfaction for the people who elected to receive it there,” said Meissner. “And so I'm enthusiastic for continued systematic and infrastructure-based efforts to provide people with more choices about where to receive this treatment.”

# # #

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the state’s only comprehensive academic health system, with a mission to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates over 3,100 students in six colleges and trains 950+ residents and fellows across its health system. MUSC leads the state in federal and National Institutes of Health and research funding. For information on our academic programs, visit musc.edu.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. In 2024, for the 10th consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health University Medical Center in Charleston the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

MUSC has a total enterprise annual operating budget of $7.1 billion. The 31,000 MUSC members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers, scientists, contract employees, affiliates and care team members who deliver groundbreaking education, research, and patient care.

About the SCTR Institute

The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research (SCTR) Institute is the catalyst for changing the culture of biomedical research, facilitating the sharing of resources and expertise and streamlining research-related processes to bring about large-scale change in clinical and translational research efforts in South Carolina. Our vision is to improve health outcomes and quality of life for the population through discoveries translated into evidence-based practice. To learn more, visit https://research.musc.edu/resources/sctr.

---

Journal

Clinical Infectious Diseases

DOI

10.1093/cid/ciae472 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Comparison of at-home versus in-clinic receipt of long-acting Injectable Cabotegravir/Rilpivirine

COI Statement

This study was funded by ViiV Healthcare. The funders did not play any decision-making role in the design, execution, analysis or reporting of the research. Stephanie E. Kirk and Eroc G. Meissner have served on an expert panel for ViiV Healthcare. Virginia Fonner has served on an implementation science advisory panel for ViiV Healthcare and FHI 360 receives ViiV support through in-kind product donations for other studies. No other authors have conflicts to report. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed

 

Rare earth element extraction bolstered by new research

University of Texas at Austin

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Rendering of artificial channels.

view more 

Credit: The University of Texas at Austin

A more efficient and environmentally friendly approach to extracting rare earth elements that power everything from electric vehicle batteries to smartphones could increase domestic supply and decrease reliance on costly imports.

This new method, developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, allows for separating and extracting these in-demand elements where it's not possible today, opening up new avenues for gathering rare earth elements amid global trade tensions. 

“Rare earth elements are the backbone of advanced technologies, but their extraction and purification are energy intensive and extremely difficult to implement at the scales required," said Manish Kumar, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. "Our work aims to change that, inspired by the natural world."​

The research was recently published in ACS Nano. The researchers developed artificial membrane channels—tiny pores embedded in membranes—that mimic the selective transport mechanisms of transport proteins found in biological systems.​ These channels are the roadways used by different ions to travel between cells.

Each channel is different, letting only ions with certain characteristics through while keeping others out. That selectivity is critical to many biological processes, including how our brains think.

The researchers' artificial channels use a modified version of a structure called pillararene to enhance their ability to bind and block specific common ions while transporting specific rare earth ions. The result is a system that can selectively transport middle rare earth elements, such as europium (Eu³⁺) and terbium (Tb³⁺), while excluding other ions like potassium, sodium, and calcium.​

“Nature has perfected the art of selective transport through biological membranes,” said Venkat Ganesan, professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and one of the research leaders.​ "These artificial channels are like tiny gatekeepers, allowing only the desired ions to pass through.”

Rare earth elements are split into several classes (light, middle and heavy), each with different properties that make them ideal for specific applications. Middle elements are used in lighting and displays, including TVs, and as magnets in green energy technologies, such as wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the European Commission have identified several middle elements, including europium and terbium, as critical materials at risk of supply disruption.​ With demand for these elements expected to grow by over 2,600% by 2035, finding sustainable ways to extract and recycle them is more urgent than ever.

In experiments, the artificial channels showed a 40-fold preference for europium over lanthanum (a light rare earth element) and a 30-fold preference for europium over ytterbium (a heavy rare earth element).​ These selectivity levels are significantly higher than those achieved by traditional solvent-based methods that require dozens of stages to achieve similar results.​

Using advanced computer simulations, they discovered that the channels’ selectivity is driven by unique water-mediated interactions between the rare earth ions and the channel.​ These interactions allow the channels to differentiate between ions based on their hydration dynamics—how water molecules surround and interact with ions.​

Kumar and his team have been working on this research for more than five years. He is an expert in membrane-based separations, applying that knowledge to clean water generation as well.

The researchers envision their technology being integrated into scalable membrane systems for industrial use.​ The goal is to make it easier to conduct ion separations in the U.S., using clean energy.

They're working on a platform for these channels that allows users to select a variety of ions to gather. This could include other critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, gallium, and nickel.

This is a first step towards translating nature’s sophisticated molecular recognition and transport strategies into robust industrial processes, thus bringing high selectivity to settings where current methods fall short,” said Harekrushna Behera, a research associate in Kumar’s lab who worked on the project.

The team includes researchers from the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, and the College of Natural Sciences' Department of Chemistry. They are: Tyler J. Duncan, Laxmicharan Samineni, Hyeonji Oh, Ankit Jogdand, Arnav Karnik, Raman Dhiman, Aida Fica, Tzu-Yun Hsieh.

---

Journal

ACS Nano

DOI

10.1021/acsnano.4c17675 

Article Title

Lanthanide-Selective Artificial Channels