Plasma and lemon juice: Milder method retrieves nearly 95% of critical minerals in battery waste
A 15-minute plasma pretreatment helped recover lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite from spent lithium-ion batteries, pointing to a lower-chemical, lower-energy approach to recycling.
Boron arsenide semiconductor sets record in quantum vibrations
A new Rice study reports an unusual quantum coherence of phonons in cubic boron arsenide, a semiconductor with promising electronic and thermal properties.
Physicists find electronic agents that govern flat band quantum materials
Qimiao Si’s group at Rice University collaborated with researchers from the Weizmann Institute to visualize the building blocks of flat band quantum materials.
Crown Princess of Sweden visits Rice
Swedish professors Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede and Anna-Karin Gustavsson, welcomed Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée, Crown Princess of Sweden, to campus March 16.
Thorny issue plaguing lithium-ion batteries laid bare in new study
Lithium-ion batteries could improve thanks to Rice researchers’ unprecedented measurements of lithium dendrites’ stiff, brittle behavior.
Rice scientists unveil new tool to watch quantum behavior in action
Rice University researchers Jianwei Huang and Ming Yi have developed a new capability, magnetoARPES, building on angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) that allows researchers to study quantum behaviors they have been unable to resolve using ARPES alone.
Rice develops low-cost, high-performance plastic heat exchanger
A recent study in Advanced Science reports an innovative, low-cost polymer heat exchanger that could transform how industries manage heat.
Granular activated carbon-sorbed PFAS can be used to extract lithium from brine
James Tour and his research team developed a process to use PFAS to extract lithium from high-salinity brine pools in a study recently published in Nature Water.
Material previously thought to be quantum is actually new, nonquantum state of matter
A recent study found that the material cerium magnesium hexalluminate (CeMgAl11O19) was not actually in a quantum spin liquid phase despite evidence suggesting it was.
Carbon nanotube fiber ‘textile’ heaters could help industry electrify high-temperature gas heating
A cross-disciplinary team at Rice has developed a new type of electric heating element — one that looks less like a traditional metal coil and more like a high-performance thread.
Platform to map living brain noninvasively takes next big step
A technology designed to read gene activity in the brain from a simple blood test has now cleared a major translational hurdle.
New technique spots hidden defects to boost reliability of ultrathin electronics
Researchers at Rice have shown that hard-to-spot defects in a widely used two-dimensional insulator can trap electrical charges and locally weaken the material, making it more likely to fail at lower voltages.
Frank Tittel, Rice professor who advanced laser spectroscopy, dies at 92
Frank Klaus Tittel, a physicist whose career paralleled the rise of modern laser technology and who helped build Rice’s reputation in laser spectroscopy and trace-gas sensing over nearly six decades, died Feb. 17. He was 92.
Metabolic clues emerge from new molecular map of Alzheimer’s
Rice scientists have developed the first complete, label-free molecular atlas of the Alzheimer’s brain in an animal model.
Researchers reinventing household water and sanitation one modular system at a time
Researchers at Rice’s WaTER Institute are leading an ambitious new effort to transform the way the world manages water and sanitation at the household scale.
