Newswise — AMES, Iowa – Potentially harmful chemicals can contaminate untreated water used in recycling plants to clean plastics before they’re processed into new products, according to a new study by an Iowa State University research group.

Researchers from Iowa State’s Polymer and Food Protection Consortium tested common industrial plastic-washing practices and found that some methods left the wash water with high levels of two types of phthalates – a class of widely used additives linked to cancer risks and hormone disruptions related to reproduction and development, especially in children.

The findings show the need for additional understanding of how recyclable plastic is cleaned for processing, which is lightly regulated and relatively understudied, said Greg Curtzwiler, a researcher for the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium and senior author of the study, which was published in Advances in Materials Science and Engineering.

“We’re trying to track the fate of these chemicals in the recycling process and figure out how to effectively remove them,” said Curtzwiler, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition.

Hunting for concerning chemicals

The study focused on polypropylene – No. 5 plastic – which is frequently used for dairy product tubs and other food packaging. Increased polypropylene recycling is a high-priority target for reducing plastic waste because it’s a durable, high-value material with a low current rate of recycling, as little as 3% by some estimates.

When investigating different ways of washing polypropylene, researchers noticed the samples – which are ground into flakes 1 to 3 mm wide, roughly the size of coarse salt grains – had reduced levels of some potentially toxic chemicals after being washed.

“We thought, ‘OK, these compounds have to be going somewhere.’ We knew we needed to take a closer look at the water,” Curtzwiler said.

No detectable phthalates or bisphenols – another hormone-disrupting class of plastic enhancers, such as BPA – appeared in wash water when plastics were cleaned with physical agitation alone or agitation combined with sodium hydroxide, a form of lye. But when cleaning with ultrasonic vibration or sodium hydroxide plus a common industrial detergent, researchers found di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-cyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP) in the wash water.  

The sodium hydroxide and detergent method was tested using the same water over 15 cycles, as wash water is often reused in industrial settings. Researchers found the levels of DEHP accumulated over time, from 10 times the level prohibited in drinking water after the first wash to 25 times the drinking-water limit after 15 cycles. The concentration of the industrial detergent fell as wash water was reused, suggesting the plastic flakes were absorbing some of the cleaner – concerning because it can also disrupt hormonal systems.

Finding cost-effective solutions

The study, funded in part by the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences, suggests that while further research is needed, recycling companies may need to change how plastic is cleaned and water involved is managed. The risks can be mitigated, said study co-author Keith Vorst, director of the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium.

“It’s important to understand that these are solvable problems,” said Vorst, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition.

Foam fractionation – passing air bubbles through water to skim off contaminants caught in the resulting foam – is one option for filtering out some toxic chemicals. Iowa State researchers also are studying electro-oxidation (using electricity to break down concerning chemicals) and a bio-based treatment with a nanomaterial called carbon nano-onions, Curtzwiler said.

Reducing how much water is used to wash recyclable plastic also could be part of a multi-pronged solution, whether through improved sorting or cleaning methods that involve far less or even no water, Vorst said.

Changes must be economical in an industry trying to expand while operating on thin margins, Curtzwiler said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a goal to boost the national plastic recycling rate to 50% by 2030, but the most recent report by The Recycling Partnership estimated that only 21% of all eligible household material in the U.S. is recycled, with rates even lower for plastic.

“You don’t want the cure to be worse than the disease, but we need to do this as cost effectively as possible,” he said.

Newswise — New research from Adelaide University has revealed that geological processes dating back billions of years are critical to locating the rare earth elements needed for modern technologies and the global clean energy transition.

Published today in Science Advances, the study shows a strong global link between ancient subduction zones – where tectonic plates collide – and the formation of rare earth element (REE) deposits and carbonatites, a type of hot molten rock called magma, known to host these valuable resources.

Rare earth elements are essential components in technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, and defence systems. However, locating economically viable deposits remains a major global challenge.

Led by Professor Carl Spandler from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, the research team reconstructed Earth’s geological history over the past two billion years using advanced plate tectonic modelling.

They identified regions of the Earth’s mantle that had been fertilised by subduction processes, where material from one tectonic plate is forced beneath another, releasing fluids and elements into the overlying mantle.

The Adelaide University researchers found that these fertilised mantle regions now underlie approximately 67% of carbonatites and 72% of REE deposits formed over the past 1.8 billion years. For older deposits, that figure rises to 92%.

Prof Spandler said the findings provide compelling evidence that ancient subduction zones play a fundamental role in creating the conditions needed for rare earth deposits to form.

“This research shows that the ingredients for these critical mineral deposits were put in place many million to even billions of years ago,” Prof Spandler said. “By identifying where these ancient processes occurred, we can significantly narrow down the search areas for future discoveries.”

The study also challenges previous theories that linked these deposits primarily to mantle plumes –columns of hot material rising from deep within the Earth.

Instead, the research highlights a two-stage process: an initial fertilisation of the mantle during subduction, followed – sometimes hundreds of millions or even billions of years later – by a separate event that triggers melting and magma formation.

“This time lag is one of the most surprising aspects of our findings,” Prof Spandler said. “It shows that the Earth’s mantle can store these enriched zones for incredibly long periods before the right conditions arise to form mineral deposits.”

The research team mapped these regions across the globe, finding they cover around 35% of the Earth’s continental crust. Importantly, areas where multiple subduction events overlapped were found to host particularly high concentrations of REE deposits.

Co-author Dr Andrew Merdith said the work has significant implications for mineral exploration.

“By focusing on these ancient tectonic zones, exploration companies and governments can take a more targeted and efficient approach to finding new deposits,” Dr Merdith said. “This is especially important as demand for rare earth elements continues to grow.”

The findings also provide new insights into Earth’s geological evolution, including how continents have been shaped over billions of years and how deep Earth processes influence surface resources.

Beyond resource exploration, the study highlights the long-term storage of carbon and water in the Earth’s mantle, with implications for understanding past climate and volcanic activity.

The research was conducted in collaboration with the ARC Centre in Critical Resources for the Future.

‘Linking carbonatites, rare earth ores, and subduction-fertilized mantle lithosphere’ is published in Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb2942

BYLINE: Greg Cunningham

Newswise — Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered a path to design superionic polymer electrolytes for solid-state batteries and other energy applications that could help ensure a future of abundant and reliable energy for the United States. The scientists demonstrated that by carefully controlling the chemical composition of a lithium salt-based polymer, they could create a material that enables superfast transport of ions in batteries and many other energy storage and conversion technologies.

“Researchers around the world are focusing on unlocking the potential of polymer electrolytes because they have a lot of advantages over the conventional liquid electrolytes,” said Catalin Gainaru, an R&D staff scientist of ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division. “Achieving fast ion transport has always been a major challenge of polymer electrolytes, but our recent research demonstrates that this may no longer be the case.”

Batteries are made up of two electrodes — a cathode and an anode — separated by an electrolyte material. As a battery charges or discharges, ions need to have a high mobility within the electrolyte as they move back and forth between electrodes. Traditional batteries use liquid or gel electrolytes, but the demand for safer and more efficient power storage has spurred interest in solid-state batteries in which the electrolyte is solid, yielding a battery that is faster charging, safer, more compact and durable. 

The challenge of ion transport in solid-state batteries

Many solid-state concepts use ceramic electrolytes that transport ions so effectively that they are known as superionic ceramics. Unfortunately, these ceramics are prone to break due to brittleness. They are also difficult to roll into thin films and don’t adhere well to the electrodes in a battery. The ORNL researchers demonstrated how a polymeric material can achieve a similar superionic state, in which ions can move up to 10 billion times faster than their surroundings, without the shortcomings of liquids and ceramics. 

Polymers are materials formed by long molecular chains made up of small, repeating building blocks. Well-known examples include a variety of plastics, which are usually made up of repeating units containing carbon and other atoms. The ORNL polymer electrolyte contains polar segments that favor the inclusion of lithium salts and strongly enhance the mobility of ions. 

The research, which was published in Materials Today, was performed as part of the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) known as the Fast and Cooperative Ion Transport in Polymer-Based Materials (FaCT) Center. 

“The goal of the FaCT EFRC is to fully understand how to design novel polymers that change the paradigm of ion transport,” said Tomonori Saito, an ORNL distinguished researcher in ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division. “We developed a very special polymer in which the segments self-organize to provide a high mobility path for the ions to move through.”

A molecular design strategy enables superionic behavior

The key development was the careful tuning of the structure of the polymer by the addition of precise amounts of molecular groups known as zwitterions. These special functional groups carry both positive and negative charges, which increases local polarity but results in a zero charge for the entire macromolecule. By using careful chemical processes, researchers were able to tailor the number of zwitterionic groups attached to the polymer backbone allowing the ions to assemble into pockets. 

In these pockets, ions interact much like conversationalists at a dinner party. At first, small pockets of diffuse conversations form, isolated throughout the material. Add more pockets, though, and the discussions eventually lose individuality and evolve into a pleasant and cohesive hum. That’s when the ions start to flow like good conversation. But add too many zwitterions, and the cohesive hum devolves into a cacophony and ion transport slows back down. 

Researchers found that the sweet spot was achieved by functionalizing around 80 percent of the units of the polymer electrolyte with zwitterionic groups. At this point, the pockets connect into channel-like structures that allow ions to hop back and forth in an orderly fashion with minimal resistance.

The research team plans to build on this promising early-stage research with additional investigations into the fundamental mechanisms that enable the superionic nature of the polymer. Modeling and simulations using ORNL supercomputing resources as well as robotic autonomous chemistry coupled with AI will help understand what drives this fascinating performance, and neutron scattering studies are planned at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL, to observe the interactions at the molecular level. 

While solid-state batteries are a clear application for the new electrolyte, many energy technologies also rely on effective ion transport. Flow batteries, fuel cells, grid-level energy storage and many other applications could benefit from these newly developed polymers. 

“It’s hard to predict all the technologies that could leverage this discovery,” Saito said. “Anything that needs an impermeable barrier layer, but let ions move freely across it, is a potential application.”

The research was funded by the DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences as part of the FaCT EFRC.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. 

BYLINE: Dawn Levy

Newswise — Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a method to convert a commonly discarded hydrocarbon polymer into gasoline- and diesel-like fuels. The team has applied for a patent for the discovery, which treats polyethylene — the stuff of white cutting boards and shopping bags — with aluminum chloride-containing molten salts that serve as both solvent and catalyst. The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The scientists closely monitored the chemical reaction that turns the polymer into petrol to learn the secrets of its success. Soft X-ray spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance showed that charged aluminum atoms each bind to three other atoms to create strongly acidic catalytic sites that break long polymer chains into shorter ones. Isotopic labeling and neutron scattering revealed how simpler polymer chains form gasoline-like fuels and more complex chains form diesel-like fuels.

If scaled beyond the laboratory, the process could strengthen U.S. energy security and industrial competitiveness.

“We developed an efficient and selective polyethylene-to-gasoline conversion,” said Liqi Qiu, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who performed most of the study’s experiments in the ORNL laboratory of Sheng Dai, of ORNL and UTK. Dai, an ORNL Corporate Fellow and section head for separations and polymer chemistry, is a co-corresponding author of the paper.

The experiments produced a gasoline yield of about 60 percent under mild conditions.

“We converted polymer waste to value-added fuels by using commercially available inorganic salts as the reaction media to provide the catalytic sites,” said Zhenzhen Yang, an ORNL staff scientist who was also a co-corresponding author of the paper. “Unlike traditional techniques for converting polymer to fuel, the new process did not require noble-metal catalysts, organic solvents or external hydrogen. This is the first time molten salts were used as media to produce high-value-added chemicals from waste without any catalytic initiator or solvent and at temperature below 200 degrees Celsius.”

That temperature is comparable to a conventional kitchen oven. Previously, converting polyethylene to gasoline required temperatures of 450 to 500 degrees Celsius through pyrolysis, a heat-driven process that breaks long polymer chains into smaller hydrocarbons.

ORNL has pioneered molten salt research since the 1960s, when its Molten Salt Reactor Experiment showed that molten salt mixtures could serve as both fuel and coolant in a nuclear reactor. 

Dai proposed using molten salts to turn polymer waste into fuel. Molten salts are inorganic compounds that remain stable under harsh reaction conditions. 

“The ORNL system solves two fundamental issues,” Dai said. “One, for a stable system, the process can be radically easier to scale up. Two, the previous system needed an initiator to kick off catalytic reactions. However, the ORNL system does not need one.”

ORNL’s Tomonori Saito managed the project and contributed polymer expertise. “In this case we tackled polyethylene, a widely available commodity polymer, using molten salt,” he said. “We’re trying to understand fundamental science that will lead to discoveries and new economic opportunities.”

Achieving that understanding required multidisciplinary expertise and advanced instruments.

At ORNL, to identify hydrocarbon products formed from reactions with various polymer chains, Luke Daemen employed neutron scattering, and Felipe Polo-Garzon used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

When the polymer interacted with an aluminum site, it created a positively charged ion of carbon. Qiu, Yang and Dai labeled that carbon ion with deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, to track its behavior during the reactions. They also used neutrons at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source to track hydrogen.

“The polymer contains a lot of hydrogen,” Dai said. “Neutrons are ideal at discerning light elements including hydrogen and its isotopes, such as deuterium.”

To probe structural changes to aluminum sites during the reaction, Yang used the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Working with Min-Jae Kim and Jinhua Guo there, she used soft X-rays to examine how aluminum sites interacted with the polymer at atomic and electronic levels. Soft X-rays are ideal for imaging lightweight elements like aluminum.

“The aluminum edge shifted to the low-electron-density edge, which means some electron-rich intermediates formed,” Yang said. “We compared the findings with other techniques and confirmed an aromatic ring intermediate can coordinate with aluminum and cause a binding-energy change.”

That change indicated that the aluminum sites were catalytically active.

Back at ORNL, Bobby Sumpter of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences conducted simulations to examine the reaction’s energy dynamics, such as formation and transfer of stable carbon ions to hydrocarbons.

At UTK, Michael Koehler used in situ X-ray diffraction to monitor phase changes in the reaction mixture, and Carlos Alberto Steren used nuclear magnetic resonance to examine aluminum sites.

ORNL’s Tao Wang lent expertise in molten salts. ORNL’s Logan Kearney provided high-density polymers and expert suggestions for their valorization paths.

Although the aluminum-site system is catalytically active and inexpensive, it is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water and loses stability. Next, the team hopes to explore ways to confine molten salts, maybe with halogens or carbons, to improve separation and processing.

The findings expand options for producing transportation and industrial fuels. “Polymer source material is abundantly available from consumer waste, and our catalyst system, aluminum molten salts, is very cheap,” Qiu said. “This advance may be promising for industry.”

The DOE Office of Science (Materials Sciences and Engineering Division) primarily supported the research as well as the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry work (Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Catalysis Science program). The research employed DOE Office of Science user facilities at ORNL (the Spallation Neutron Source for neutron scattering at the VISION beamline and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences for quantum chemistry calculations) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (the Advanced Light Source for soft X-ray spectra).

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Dawn Levy

Newswise — ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —When Sandia scientists Ryan Davis and Nathan Bays set out to find a better way to absorb and degrade PFAS in water sources, they kept running into the same issue: Detecting the chemicals in samples took too long.

So, they came up with their own solution.

They’ve developed a faster, cheaper way to test for PFAS.

The problem of PFAS and solving it

PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are commonly called forever chemicals because they don’t break down naturally in the environment. They can move through soil and water and build up in wildlife and humans.

Ryan, a chemist, has spent years developing technologies that can eliminate PFAS on both large and small scales. But that research has been time-consuming. Depending on the concentration, it can take hours to days to detect PFAS in a single sample.

“A common complaint of ours and others who are doing PFAS analysis is that it’s slow and can be costly depending on the technology,” Ryan said.

Traditional testing processes requires repetitive extraction, concentration and processing.

 It starts with a liter or more of liquid, suspected to contain PFAS. The liquid is forced through a cartridge to extract the PFAS. The collected PFAS is then added to a smaller volume of water, and the process is repeated with new cartridges until enough PFAS concentrated for detection.  

The process is not only time-consuming but also costly. Cartridges can cost several hundred dollars apiece.

That process not only slows research and development but puts testing out of reach for the average person.

“We want a technology that can be broadly accessible, not only for researchers but for the broader public and government,” Ryan said. “It will allow regulators to track PFAS in the environment, and for people to test their own tap water.”  

A new way to detect PFAS

Ryan and Sandia postdoctoral researcher Nathan Bays have developed that technology.

The pair stumbled onto the approach while experimenting with a mass spectrometer and a technique called desorption electrospray ionization, or DESI. The process uses electrically charged droplets sprayed at the surface of an adsorbent that ionizes only the target chemical, not the adsorbent itself.

 Bays and Ryan said the results were unexpected.

“We had toyed with the idea of using DESI to confirm the presence of PFAS on adsorbent materials,” Ryan said. “When we did some preliminary testing, not only did we confirm the presence of PFAS, but we noticed that we got results well beyond our standard analysis.”

“At this point, it became very clear we had an opportunity to push further on this work,” Bays said. “One step at a time, we went from just being able to see PFAS at parts-per-million—to levels at parts-per-billion, and finally low parts-per-trillion.”

Ryan and Bays’ technique starts with an adsorbent about the size of a Rice Krispy. The adsorbent is placed in a solution for testing. Three minutes later, it is removed and placed in front of a mass spectrometer where it is sprayed with electrically charged droplets. The droplets remove PFAS from the adsorbent and carry it into the mass spectrometer, where it is analyzed for PFAS concentration and type.

The entire process can take as little as five minutes.

“It’s one of those outcomes that wasn’t exactly planned as we had initially envisioned it,” Ryan said. “It was surprising to see the concentration of PFAS so clearly. That may be why it hadn’t been done before. It was just unexpected.”

The pair has published details of the process in hopes it can be commercialized for widespread use. They also hope it can be developed to tackle other environmental pollutants besides PFAS and used for environmental analytics and testing such as off- gassing measurements tied to Sandia’s nuclear deterrence work.   

“It could help researchers understand the system’s environment and the off-gassing of chemicals in certain work,” Ryan said. “While our first phase worked with liquid, our more recent work has delved into the gas phase.”

Why they do it

Both Ryan and Nathan are passionate about this technology and PFAS remediation. Developing the new test is just a small part of the broader work they do aimed at reducing PFAS pollution.

“I’ve been working on this specific project since I joined Sandia two and a half years ago,” Nathan said. “My whole career has evolved around environmental remediation, so this was a natural fit. I’m a big outdoors person. My wife and I like to go out in nature, and we don’t like to see our world be polluted like this.”

One of the biggest focuses of PFAS remediation has been at U.S. Air Force bases, where soil and groundwater have been impacted by the long-term use of firefighting foam.

Ryan’s big goal, however, is to give people more power over their health. “More and more research shows that PFAS can have negative outcomes at even low concentrations, so detecting at those low concentrations is key,” Ryan said. “We don’t want families to worry about whether they can afford groceries this week or test their water for safety.”

Newswise — JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic researchers developed an experimental nanotherapy that delivers two cancer drugs directly to brain tumors, according to a study published in Nature Communications Medicine. The strategy extended survival in preclinical models of glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

The nanotechnology-based approach packages two existing cancer drugs into tiny particles engineered to cross the brain’s protective blood-brain barrier and target tumor cells. In preclinical models using patient-derived tissue, combining the treatment with radiation more than doubled survival compared with untreated controls.

Glioblastoma is notoriously difficult to treat. Patients typically survive for about 15 months after diagnosis, even with the latest therapies such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. One major challenge is that many drugs cannot effectively reach tumors in the brain, and those that do often lose effectiveness as tumors develop resistance.

The new approach uses small lipid-based particles, known as liposomes, to carry and deliver a combination of drugs — everolimus or rapamycin and vinorelbine — directly to cancer cells, using a new tumor-targeting strategy. By ensuring both drugs reach the same cells at the same time, researchers aim to improve tumor-killing effects while reducing the toxic side effects associated with higher drug doses.

“Glioblastoma remains extremely difficult to treat due to drug resistance and limited drug delivery to the brain,” says Debabrata (Dev) Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Dr. Mukhopadhyay, a nanotechnologist, is a senior author of the study. “Our approach is designed to improve both by targeting the tumor directly and combining therapies in a way that enhances their impact.”

The drug combination includes agents that interfere with tumor growth pathways and disrupt the cancer’s ability to repair DNA damage, making tumors more sensitive to radiation.

“This represents a promising direction for treating patients with glioblastoma and advancing new technologies and therapies, so we can one day improve the survival of patients with brain cancer by delivering novel cancer therapies to the brain,” says Alfredo Quinones-Hiñojosa, M.D., dean of research emeritus and chair emeritus of the Department of Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic in Florida and a senior author on the study. “Further research will be needed to determine whether these results translate to patients.”

Researchers are conducting additional safety and dosing studies required before clinical trials can begin. If successful, the approach could eventually be an oral or intravenous medication used alongside standard treatments or as an option for patients whose tumors do not respond to existing therapies.

“While this work is still in development, it represents an important step toward developing more precise cancer treatments that are both more effective and less toxic, potentially improving quality of life for patients,” says Dr. Mukhopadhyay.

This study was supported in part by the National Institutes of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01NS129671. Read the study for a full list of authors, disclosures and funding.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center

Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining the cancer center of the future, focused on delivering the world’s most exceptional patient-centered cancer care for everyone. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs in cancer detection, prevention and treatment to change lives.

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Newswise — In a study published in Bioresource Technology Journal, scientists from the universities of Portsmouth and Manchester report that a specially engineered enzyme can significantly speed up the breakdown of PET – the plastic used in water bottles, food packaging and polyester clothing – when it is processed at high concentrations similar to those used in industry. 

PET, short for poly (ethylene terephthalate), is cheap, durable, and widely used. But those same qualities mean it builds up in vast quantities once thrown away. 

Polyester textiles are notoriously difficult to recycle. Their fibres are tightly packed and highly ordered into a structure created during manufacturing, which makes them resistant to biological breakdown. 

Enzymes are natural proteins that can speed up chemical reactions. The team combined two different components into one fusion enzyme. The first was a heat-tolerant cutinase; a natural enzyme that normally breaks down a protective polyester found on plant surfaces called cutin. The second was a binding module designed to help the enzyme to attach more tightly to plastic. 

The two components were carefully matched, so they work best at the same temperature and are suited to the same kinds of plastic structure. The aim was to make the enzyme stick to PET and ensure it could continue breaking it down efficiently under realistic recycling conditions. 

While the modified enzyme did attach more strongly to highly crystalline PET – the tough, tightly packed form found in many plastics – did not automatically lead to faster breakdown. In fact, when the plastic structure remained highly ordered, there was limited gain. 

The real progress came when the plastic was less crystalline and as a result more accessible to the enzyme. Under controlled conditions that mimic industrial recycling – including carefully managed pH and plastic concentrations of 20 per cent by weight – the fused enzyme broke down less-ordered PET much more quickly. 

The biggest improvement was seen in a pre-consumer polyester textile that had been specially treated to make it less crystalline and finely ground. In that case, the amount of useful breakdown products doubled. 

“By matching the enzyme with the right binding module and preparing the plastic in the right way, we can overcome a major bottleneck in plastic recycling,” said Professor Andrew Pickford, Director of the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI). “This isn’t just about helping the enzyme stick to the surface – it’s about making sure the chemical reaction can run efficiently at the high plastic concentrations used in industry.” 

The findings also help explain why earlier studies of similar enzyme combinations have produced mixed results. If an enzyme binds too tightly to the surface, it can slow the reaction – a well-established concept in chemistry known as the Sabatier principle. 

The study suggests that enzyme-based recycling of PET – a promising but technically challenging solution – could become more practical at scale but success, depends on getting three factors right: the enzyme, any helper module that guides it to the plastic, and the structure of the material itself. 

BYLINE: Tina M. Johnson

Newswise — Gevo, an advanced biofuels company based in Colorado, has licensed two patented catalyst technologies from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for use in the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

“This partnership will streamline the transition of ORNL’s catalyst technologies from lab scale to pilot-scale reactors,” said Andrew Sutton, senior scientist in the Manufacturing Science Division at ORNL. “By demonstrating industrial viability, our goal is to accelerate the commercialization of this technology in the U.S., boosting global competitiveness and domestic production of aviation fuel.”

SAF is an alternative fuel made from plant- or waste-based feedstocks. The International Air Transport Association, representing more than 80% of global air traffic, is interested in SAF. Many air carriers have agreed to buy the fuel at scale, but production efficiencies remain an issue.

To meet the challenge, researchers at ORNL developed catalysts that enable a single-step conversion of ethanol to olefins (ETO), which can then be used to produce SAF. A catalyst accelerates chemical reactions and enhances the efficiency of the fuel production process.

In addition to SAF, olefins serve as key building blocks for a wide range of products, including plastics, solvents and surfactants. The global plastics market is poised for continued growth, with forecasts predicting a market worth more than $1.3 trillion by 2033.

Ethanol, commonly derived from agricultural or cellulosic feedstocks, often serves as the basis for SAF production through its conversion to olefins — key intermediates that simplify and reduce the cost of large-scale fuel manufacturing. Building on this foundation, ORNL’s novel conversion process not only achieves high carbon efficiency but does so at equal or lower cost compared with conventional methods.

Through the DOE Technology Commercialization Fund, the partnership was awarded support for a three-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to advance this technology for pilot-scale operation and industrial commercialization. Gevo will guide the overall process model and provide industry know-how for successful implementation in the company’s pilot reactor.

“Gevo’s collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory focuses on evaluating a novel catalytic process that converts ethanol into valuable fuel precursors and alternative chemicals like butadiene,” said Andrew Ingram, Gevo’s director of process chemistry and catalysis. “This work complements our broader ethanol conversion portfolio but is distinct from both our commercial deployment of Axens’ alcohol-to-jet process and our next-generation ETO platform. If the economics prove out, this pathway could provide a flexible, cost-effective option to scale U.S. bio-based solutions, driven by American innovation that creates new markets and demand for farmers producing feedstocks for energy and materials.”

ORNL provides extensive scale-up expertise, employing advanced characterization capabilities at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which was used to provide deeper insight into catalytic processes in larger chemical reactors.

Under the CRADA, ORNL will develop catalyst pellets and test their performance in an advanced chemical reactor. Researchers will develop a computational model based on the testing data generated that can accurately predict how the process will behave at scale to clear the way for industrial use. 

Global demand for jet fuel is expected to increase from 106 billion gallons in 2019 to 230 billion gallons by 2050. Expanding SAF use could help the aviation industry meet this demand while advancing U.S. energy independence and security.

This project was supported by DOE’s Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office, formerly known as the Bioenergy Technologies Office, through the Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio), a multi-laboratory consortium focused on accelerating the development of catalytic technologies that convert biomass and waste resources into bio-based fuels and chemicals. Initial program funding was provided by ORNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development and Technology Innovation programs.

In addition to Sutton, Stephen Purdy, Meijun Li, Michael Cordon and Hunter Jacobs are currently contributing to the CRADA project. Inventors of the patented technologies include ORNL’s Li and Brian Davison, former ORNL researcher Zhenglong Li and the University of Maryland’s Junyan Zhang. Jennifer Caldwell within Technology Transfer at ORNL negotiated the terms of the licensing agreement. Browse available chemical technologies for licensing.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science. — Tina M. Johnson

Newswise — Scientists discovered how tiny changes in superhydride structure enable superconductivity at near room temperatures but extreme pressure — offering clues for designing more practical superconductors.

Superconductors allow electricity to flow without resistance, meaning no energy is lost as heat. This property makes them useful for technologies such as MRI scanners, particle accelerators, magnetic-levitation trains and some power-transmission systems. Most superconductors, however, only work at extremely low temperatures — often hundreds of degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Keeping materials that cold requires complex and costly cooling systems, which limits where the superconductors can be used.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have helped take a step toward easing that limitation. They have gained new insight into a class of materials called superhydrides that can become superconducting at much higher temperatures — around 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

The research was carried out with collaborators from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), the University of Chicago and DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. A key tool was the upgraded Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne.

“These experiments show what the upgraded APS can do. We can now study atomic-level structures with unprecedented detail in materials under extreme pressure.” — Maddury Somayazulu, Argonne physicist

Superhydrides are made mostly of hydrogen, held together in an ordered structure (crystal) by a small number of metal atoms. When subjected to extremely high pressures, these materials can carry electric current with no resistance. In a landmark 2018 study, researchers led by UIC professor Russell Hemley showed that a lanthanum-based superhydride could superconduct near 8 degrees Fahrenheit. The drawback was that it only worked at pressures equivalent to those deep within the Earth (1.88 million atmospheres), making it impractical outside the lab.

In the new study, Hemley and his fellow researchers explored whether changing the material’s chemistry could lower the pressure needed for superconductivity. They added a small amount of yttrium to the lanthanum superhydride to make it more stable and reduce the pressure required.

“To reach these extreme pressures, we squeezed a tiny sample between two diamonds,” said Maddury Somayazulu, a physicist at the APS. The team’s diamond-anvil device can generate pressures as high as five million atmospheres.

After forming the superconducting material at high pressure and temperature, the team used high-energy X-rays from the APS to study its structure (at beamlines 16-ID-B and 13-ID-D). ​“We focused an intense X-ray beam onto a sample only a few micrometers thick and about ten to twenty micrometers across,” said Vitali Prakapenka, a beamline scientist and research professor at the University of Chicago. One micrometer is about 1/70^th the width of a human hair.

The recent APS upgrade made these measurements possible. Its brighter, more tightly focused X-ray beam allowed researchers to study extremely small samples while changing the pressure. ​“That beam allowed us to separate signals coming from the tiny sample itself as opposed to those coming from the surrounding materials and diamond anvils,” Prakapenka said.

The team found that small differences in how atoms are arranged in a crystalline lattice can strongly affect superconductivity. They identified two different crystal structures, each becoming superconducting at a slightly different temperature.

“These experiments show what the upgraded APS can do,” Somayazulu said. ​“We can now study atomic-level structures with unprecedented detail in materials under extreme pressure.”

Although the pressures used in the experiments are still very high — about 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure — the researchers see this as part of a longer path forward. They are adding more elements to lower the pressure further with the goal of making these materials practical.

Diamonds provide a useful comparison, Somayazulu explained. Natural diamonds form deep inside the Earth under extreme pressure and temperature. Scientists later learned how to synthesize them in the lab, and eventually how to produce them without such intense conditions. Researchers believe superhydrides could follow a similar path.

“If we understand the physics well enough, we may be able to stabilize these structures at much lower pressures but still attain superconductivity close to room temperature,” Prakapenka said.

Experimental data from the APS will help guide theoretical models and AI tools in that search for new materials. Instead of testing only a few combinations at quite-challenging-to-reach extreme conditions, scientists can use AI to explore many possible multi-element compositions. They can then focus experiments on the most promising ones.

“The calculations are very demanding,” Prakapenka said. ​“Theorists rely on high-quality experimental data to make their predictions more accurate.”

Finding a material that superconducts at near room temperature and normal pressure could reshape the nation’s electrical infrastructure.

The research was supported by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, DOE National Nuclear Security Administration and the National Science Foundation. Contributors include Maddury Somayazulu, Russell Hemley, Vitali Prakapenka, Abdul Haseeb Manayil-Marathamkottil, Kui Wang, Nilesh Salke, Muhtar Ahart, Alexander Mark, Rostislav Hrubiak, Stella Chariton, Dean Smith and Nenad Velisavljevic.

This article was adapted from the UIC release.

About the Advanced Photon Source

The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nation’s economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.

This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

BYLINE: Kitta MacPherson

Newswise — Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate.

“No one knows, from a scientific perspective, how life could have been formed from an early Earth that had no life,” said Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree in marine biology and fisheries management from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025. “How does something come from nothing?”

 Cinquemani is the lead author of a scientific review, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, examining where life may have first formed on Earth. The paper focuses on hydrothermal vents, places where hot, mineral-rich water flows through rock and emerges into surrounding water, creating the chemical conditions and energy gradients needed for complex reactions.

 Her research points to hydrothermal systems created by meteor impacts as a potentially critical and underappreciated setting for the origin of life, strengthening the case beyond conventional deep-sea vent theories. Cinquemani said such systems would have been widespread on early Earth, making them especially compelling environments for life to begin.

 The paper, co-authored with Rutgers oceanographer Richard Lutz, marks a rare achievement for a recent undergraduate whose work began as a class assignment and was transformed into a publication in a highly respected scientific journal.

 “It’s amazing,” Lutz said. “You often have undergraduates that are part of papers – faculty choose undergraduates all the time to work on papers and projects. But for an undergraduate to be the lead author is a huge deal.” 

 The project started in the spring of Cinquemani’s senior year in a course called “Hydrothermal Vents,” taught by Lutz, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Cinquemani’s assignment was to examine whether hydrothermal vents on Mars could have been harbingers of life there.

 “I was like, ‘I know nothing about this topic,’” she said. “Thinking about the origins of biology on another planet was like, whoa. Not sure how I’m going to do this.” The topic went beyond her usual comfort zone of biology and extended into chemistry, physics and geology, she said.

 Cinquemani expanded the assignment after graduation into a full scientific review of both impact-generated and deep-sea vent systems, which was accepted after what Lutz described as a demanding peer-review evaluation.

 “I have never seen such a rigorous review process,” Lutz said. “There were 15 pages of comments and five different rounds of reviews. She had the patience and perseverance, and the paper turned out magnificently.”

 Deep-sea hydrothermal vents have long been considered a possible birthplace of life. Discovered in the deep ocean in the late 1970s, these systems host entire ecosystems that thrive without sunlight. Instead of photosynthesis, microbes use chemical energy from compounds released by vent fluids, such as hydrogen sulfide, in a process known as chemosynthesis.

 Some deep-sea vents are powered by heat from the Earth’s interior near volcanic activity while others are driven by chemical reactions between water and rock that generate heat without magma. This heat facilitates chemical processes and provides a warm oasis in the otherwise barren seafloor of the deep ocean. 

 Cinquemani’s paper places more focus on a different category that has recently begun gaining attention: hydrothermal systems created by meteor impacts.

 When a large meteor strikes Earth, the impact generates intense heat and melts surrounding rock. As the area cools and water fills the crater, a hot, mineral-rich environment can form, similar in some ways to deep-sea vents.

 “You have a lake surrounding a very, very warm center,” Cinquemani said. “And now you get a hydrothermal vent system, just like in the deep sea, but made by the heat from an impact.”

 To explore how these systems might support life, she examined research on three well-studied crater sites that span vastly different periods of Earth’s history. The oldest is the Chicxulub impact structure beneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, formed about 65 million years ago and later shown to have hosted a long-lived hydrothermal system. Next is the Haughton impact structure in the Canadian Arctic, formed about 31 million years ago. The youngest is Lonar Lake in India, created about 50,000 years ago, where the crater still contains water and offers clues about how these systems evolve over time.

 These impact-generated systems may last thousands to tens of thousands of years, giving simple molecules time to form more complex structures that could lead to life.

 Scientists say such environments may have been especially important on early Earth, which experienced frequent asteroid impacts. In that sense, events often seen as destructive also may have helped create the conditions for life.

 The idea builds on decades of research into deep-sea vents while expanding the search for life’s origins into new territory.

 Lutz helped explore these deep-sea environments several decades ago when they were still a scientific mystery. As a young postdoctoral researcher, he joined the first biological expedition to study hydrothermal vents and descended more than a mile beneath the ocean surface in the research deep-sea submersible Alvin, where he observed thriving communities of organisms in total darkness.

 Those dives helped open a new field of research and shaped scientists’ understanding of how life can exist in extreme environments without sunlight.

 “We have talked for many years about the possibility that life may have originated at deep-sea hydrothermal vents,” Lutz said.

 Cinquemani’s work brings together those long-standing ideas with newer evidence that impact-generated systems also could play a role and may in some cases offer favorable conditions for early chemical reactions.

 The implications extend beyond Earth. Hydrothermal activity is thought to exist on the ocean floors of icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, and may have existed in impact craters on young Mars. If these environments on Earth can support the chemistry of life, they could become key targets in the search for life elsewhere.

 For Cinquemani, the work is driven by curiosity.

 “Humans are insanely curious beings,” said Cinquemani, who works as a technician at Rutgers’ New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, N.J., where she supports aquaculture research while preparing to pursue advanced study in marine science. “We question everything. We may never know exactly how we began, but we can try our best to understand how things might have occurred.”

Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.