Newswise — NEWPORT NEWS, VA – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has selected DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility to lead two research projects that will develop new technologies for better managing the waste from nuclear power plants. The $8.17 million total in grants come from the Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program.

The goal of both projects is to improve existing particle accelerator technologies, one of Jefferson Lab’s key areas of expertise, and repurpose them for applications beyond fundamental research.

“Based on our own success in developing cutting-edge accelerator technologies to enable scientific discoveries, we believe that there is a contribution we can make with the experience we have gained over the last few decades,” said Rongli Geng, who is a principal investigator on both grants. Geng heads the SRF Science & Technology department in Jefferson Lab’s Accelerator Operations, Research and Development division.

Accelerator-Driven Systems Save the Day

According to ARPA-E, unprocessed used nuclear fuel “reaches the radiotoxicity of natural uranium ore after approximately 100,000 years of cooling. Partitioning and recycling of uranium, plutonium, and minor actinide content of used nuclear fuel can dramatically reduce this number to around 300 years.” The NEWTON program grants are aimed at enabling this recycling effort, so that it can be applied to “the entirety of the U.S. commercial used nuclear fuel stockpile within 30 years.”

This work is aimed at moving toward economic viability of transmutation of nuclear waste, a key priority of the NEWTON program. Specifically, the NEWTON grants will support the further development of accelerator-driven systems (ADS). ADS can transform highly radioactive and long-lived nuclear waste into less radioactive, shorter-lived materials, while also producing additional electricity.

An ADS is composed of a particle accelerator that propels a beam of high-energy protons at a target material such as liquid mercury. As the protons interact with the target, the material “spalls” or releases neutrons that are directed at containers of spent nuclear fuel.

“These neutrons will interact with these unwanted isotopes and convert them into more manageable isotopes that you can either try out for some beneficial use or bury underground. Instead of having a lifetime of 100,000 years in storage, for example, you can shorten the storage years down to 300,” Geng said.

Jefferson Lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) is a state-of-the-art particle accelerator that represented a huge leap forward in efficiency when it came online for its first experiment in 1995. It was the first large-scale installation of superconducting radiofrequency technology. Today, it supports the research for more than 1,700 nuclear physicists worldwide.

SRF technology powers many of the most advanced research accelerators in the world, including CEBAF and the accelerator that powers the Spallation Neutron Source at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Both accelerators are DOE Office of Science user facilities that enable research in the basic and applied sciences.

Improving ADS Technology

The first project aims to amp up the SRF particle accelerator components in ADS. The focus in this grant is on boosting the components’ efficiency.

In today’s world-class research machines, SRF particle accelerator cavities are made of a pure, silver-colored metal called niobium. Niobium becomes superconducting at extremely low temperatures, a key requirement for their efficiency. The downside to that efficiency is that big research machines must be supported by separate and costly cryogenic refrigeration facilities.

Recently, Jefferson Lab and other research facilities have found that coating the inside surfaces of pure niobium accelerator cavities with tin can make these components even more efficient, allowing them to not only operate at higher temperatures but also with standard commercial cooling units. This work builds on the research and development work supported by DOE’s Nuclear Physics (NP) program and NP’s Early Career Award (ECA) program.

The $4,217,721 grant will allow collaborators from Jefferson Lab, RadiaBeam Technology and Oak Ridge National Lab to further improve the cavities. The researchers plan to test niobium-tin cavities that have specifically been designed to accelerate protons for spalling neutrons. 

“Those are based on the mature Spallation Neutron Source cavity design, but we will add the new tin material on this existing design,” explained Geng. “So that will be tested together with our partners at Oak Ridge National Lab.”

A second goal of the grant is to design new SRF cavities that feature a more complicated design but will drive the machine efficiency even higher with enhanced neutron spallation.

“We’re going to design, build and test a new class of cavities called the spoke cavities,” Geng said. “Very likely, the whole machine will be based on this SRF technology, so this is the kind of innovation that is going to be an additive value.”

The Driving Force for ADS

The second project will focus on powering up the SRF accelerator cavities inside the ADS particle accelerators. For that, the researchers will turn to a common component that also powers the pops that turn ordinary corn kernels into light and fluffy popcorn: the magnetron.

In particle accelerators, magnetrons would provide the power that the SRF cavities harness to propel particle beams. The tricky part here is that the frequency of the energy supplied by the magnetron must match the frequency of the particle accelerator cavity, which is 805 Megahertz.

“We need a lot of power – 10 Megawatts or more. That’s why the efficiency becomes very critical,” Geng said.

For the $3,957,203 grant, the team will be working with Stellant Systems, one of the major players in magnetron manufacturing, to produce advanced magnetrons that can be combined to boost performance at the design frequency. The project team also includes General Atomics Energy Group and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Stellant is tasked to design and prototype this new magnetron, and we’re going to collaborate with General Atomics and Oak Ridge National Lab to do the power combining test,” Geng explained. “That’s the main objective: demonstrate the high power, high efficiency at 805 Megahertz.”

He added that this work builds on research and development work supported by DOE’s Accelerator R&D and Production (ARDAP) program. This program helps ensure that new and emerging accelerator technology will be available for future discovery science and societal applications. Its support was instrumental in developing the technologies that are now at a place where they are ready to be adapted to contribute to the goal of safely maintaining the waste materials produced in nuclear power generation.

Both projects are also already on the path to commercialization of these technologies. By including commercial entities in these initial phases, Jefferson Lab and its partners are helping to not only transfer the specialized knowledge and expertise that will make the resulting technologies successful, but they are also developing these technologies with considerations of the capabilities of companies who would be manufacturing ADS and supporting their operations.

According to Geng, “The challenge is to really translate the accelerator science from where we are right now in terms of technology readiness to where the technology needs to be for this application.”

Further Reading:
Jefferson Lab Research and Technology Partnerships Office
Jefferson Lab Dedicates Niobium-tin Particle Accelerator Prototype
Benchmarking CEBAF
Supercool Delivery: Final Section of Souped-Up Neutron Source Trucks Out of Jefferson Lab
Jefferson Lab technology, capabilities take center stage in construction of portion of DOE’s Spallation Neutron Source accelerator
Smoother Surfaces Make for Better Accelerators
Adapting Particle Accelerators for Industrial Work
Mixing Metals for Improved Performance
Conduction-cooled Accelerating Cavity Proves Feasible for Commercial Applications
Liquid Helium-Free SRF Cavities Could Make Industrial Applications Practical
Award enables research for more efficient accelerators
Microwave Popcorn to Particle Accelerators: Magnetrons Show Promise as Radiofrequency Source

-end-

Jefferson Science Associates, LLC, manages and operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, or Jefferson Lab, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. JSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. (SURA).

DOE’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://energy.gov/science

Newswise — Illinois Grainger engineers have identified a fundamental deformation mechanism that can be leveraged to greatly enhance the fatigue properties of metals, opening the door to a new strategy for designing fatigue-resistant alloys.

Metal alloys crack and fail through a mechanism called “fatigue” when repeatedly loaded and strained. While it is well known how to design alloys to withstand static loads and pressures, it is very difficult to design resistance to fatigue because it is difficult to predict how the underlying cause manifests at the atomic scale.

Researchers in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated that fatigue resistance can be greatly enhanced by controlling how metal plasticity, or irreversible deformation, localizes at small scales. It represents a new design strategy for engineering metallic alloys that are resistant to fatigue by leveraging unique deformation processes at the atomic scale.

“Transportation, space and energy all create environments where there is risk for fatigue, presenting a challenge to both safety and sustainability,” said materials science and engineering professor and project lead Jean-Charles Stinville. “Structural applications that involve high temperatures or radiation need materials resistant to fatigue, and our work shows how to design metal alloys that achieve this.”

These results were recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

Fatigue is governed by how a material accommodates plastic deformation, the irreversible rearrangement of its internal structure under repeated loading. As a material is cyclically loaded and unloaded, localized plastic deformation accumulates eventually leading to crack initiation. Paradoxically, materials engineered to withstand very high static loads often suffer from reduced fatigue resistance because their microstructure promotes strong localization of plastic deformation, accelerating damage accumulation.

“In alloys, plastic deformation tends to localize into discrete regions, which ultimately become preferential sites for fatigue crack initiation,” Stinville explained. “Because this localization emerges from complex microstructural and deformation processes interactions, it is difficult to predict where and how it will occur, making it challenging to account for during the engineering design stage.” 

Stinville and his collaborators examined whether fatigue resistance can be drastically improved by designing alloys in which plastic deformation is engineered to remain small and uniformly distributed rather than intense and highly localized.

“It makes sense intuitively, that spreading out the plastic deformation homogeneously makes reduces the impact of localized deformation, but experimentally demonstrating it was another matter,” Stinville said. “It required new technology capable of scanning large regions at very high resolution combined with theoretical support from density functional theory and ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations.”

The researchers used high-throughput automated high-resolution digital image correlation, a technique developed in Stinville’s laboratory, to map plastic deformation with unprecedented spatial resolution across large material regions. Unlike conventional methods, which must trade field of view for resolution, this approach captures fine-scale deformation over wide areas. These measurements revealed a delocalized mode of plastic deformation involving deformation processes called “dynamic plastic delocalization.” Mechanical testing showed to be directly associated with greatly enhanced fatigue resistance.

To make sense of the observed structural features, Stinville’s group collaborated with mechanical science and engineering researchers within the group of mechanical science and engineering professor Huseyin Sehitoglu, an expert in the theory and modeling of metal deformation. Computational modeling clarified the roles of chemistry and ordering on the observed delocalized plasticity in the tested materials.

Now that it has been confirmed that metal chemistry and structure can be used to generate homogeneous plasticity during deformation and therefore greatly improved fatigue resistance, the next step is exploring the potential of this result in material design strategies.

“Now that the fundamental mechanism has been identified, we can design new alloys chemistry that activates it to produce fatigue resistant alloys,” Stinville said. 

This study’s other contributors are Dhruv Anjaria, Mathieu Calvat, Shuchi Sanandiya, and Daegun You of Illinois Grainger Engineering; Milan Heczko of the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences; and Maik Rajkowski, Aditya Srinivasan Tirunilai and Guillaume Laplanche of Ruhr Universität Bochum.

Newswise — The aviation industry accounts for a significant share of global carbon emissions. In response, the international community is expanding mandatory use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is produced from organic waste or biomass and is expected to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fossil-based jet fuel. However, high production costs remain a major challenge, leading some airlines in Europe and Japan to pass SAF-related costs on to consumers.

Against this backdrop, a research team led by Dr. Yun-Jo Lee at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), in collaboration with EN2CORE Technology Co., Ltd., has successfully demonstrated an integrated process that converts landfill gas generated from organic waste—such as food waste—into aviation fuel.

Currently, the refining industry mainly produces SAF from used cooking oil. However, used cooking oil is limited in supply and is also used for other applications such as biodiesel, making it relatively expensive and difficult to secure in large quantities. In contrast, landfill gas generated from food waste and livestock manure is abundant and inexpensive. This study represents the first domestic demonstration of aviation fuel production using landfill gas as the primary feedstock.

Producing aviation fuel from landfill gas requires overcoming two major challenges: purifying the gas to obtain suitable intermediates and improving the efficiency of converting gaseous intermediates into liquid fuels. The research team addressed these challenges by developing an integrated process encompassing landfill gas pretreatment, syngas production, and catalytic conversion of syngas into liquid fuels.

EN2CORE Technology was responsible for the upstream processes. Landfill gas collected from waste disposal sites is desulfurized and treated using membrane-based separation to reduce excess carbon dioxide. The purified gas is then converted into synthesis gas—containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen—using a proprietary plasma reforming reactor, and subsequently supplied to KRICT.

KRICT applied the Fischer–Tropsch process to convert the gaseous syngas into liquid fuels. In this process, hydrogen and carbon react on a catalyst surface to form hydrocarbon chains. Hydrocarbons of appropriate chain length become liquid fuels, while longer chains form solid byproducts such as wax. By employing zeolite- and cobalt-based catalysts, KRICT significantly improved selectivity toward liquid fuels rather than solid byproducts.

A key innovation of this work is the application of a microchannel reactor. Excessive heat generation during aviation fuel synthesis can damage catalysts and reduce process stability. The microchannel reactor developed by the team features alternating layers of catalyst and coolant channels, enabling rapid heat removal and suppression of thermal runaway. Through integrated and modular design, the reactor volume was reduced by up to one-tenth compared to conventional systems. Production capacity can be expanded simply by adding modules.

For demonstration purposes, the team constructed an integrated pilot facility on a landfill site in Dalseong-gun, Daegu. The facility, approximately 100 square meters in size and comparable to a two-story detached house, successfully produced 100 kg of sustainable aviation fuel per day, achieving a liquid fuel selectivity exceeding 75 percent. The team is currently optimizing long-term operation conditions and further enhancing catalyst and reactor performance.

This achievement demonstrates the potential to convert everyday waste-derived gases from food waste and sewage sludge into high-value aviation fuel. Moreover, it shows that aviation fuel production—previously limited to large-scale centralized plants—can be realized at local landfills or small waste treatment facilities. The technology is therefore expected to contribute to the establishment of decentralized SAF production systems and strengthen the competitiveness of Korea’s SAF industry.

The research team noted that the work is significant in securing an integrated process technology that converts organic waste into high-value fuels. KRICT President Young-Kuk Lee stated that the technology has strong potential to become a representative solution capable of achieving both carbon neutrality and a circular economy.

The development of two catalysts enabling selective production of liquid fuels was published as an inside cover article in ACS Catalysis (November 2025) and in Fuel (January 2026).

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KRICT is a non-profit research institute funded by the Korean government. Since its foundation in 1976, KRICT has played a leading role in advancing national chemical technologies in the fields of chemistry, material science, environmental science, and chemical engineering. Now, KRICT is moving forward to become a globally leading research institute tackling the most challenging issues in the field of Chemistry and Engineering and will continue to fulfill its role in developing chemical technologies that benefit the entire world and contribute to maintaining a healthy planet. More detailed information on KRICT can be found at https://www.krict.re.kr/eng/

This research was supported by “Development of integrated demonstration process for the production of bio naphtha/lubricant oil from organic waste-derived biogas” (Project No. RS-2022-NR068680) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Republic of Korea.

Newswise — Lithium-ion batteries serve as the core energy storage devices in various industries and everyday products, including smartphones, electric vehicles, and ESS (energy storage systems). However, conventional lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes, posing a risk of fire or explosion when subjected to external impact or overheating. Recent electric vehicle fire incidents have heightened concerns about their safety. As an alternative to overcome these limitations, ‘all-solid-state batteries’-which use non-flammable solid materials as electrolytes-are gaining attention as next-generation battery technology.

However, amorphous solid electrolytes-the core material for all-solid-state batteries-have faced limitations in analyzing lithium-ion transport mechanisms due to the irregularity of their internal structure. Consequently, performance improvements have been achieved empirically by altering electrolyte composition or compression conditions, making it difficult to systematically explain the causes of performance differences.

A research team led by Dr. Byungju, Lee at the Computational Science Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Sang-Rok Oh) has identified key factors governing lithium ion movement in amorphous solid electrolytes through AI-based atomic simulations. The team analyzed lithium-ion movement by distinguishing it into ‘ease of movement between sites’ and ‘connectivity of movement paths’. They confirmed that overall performance is more significantly influenced by the difficulty of ions moving from one site to the next than by path connectivity.

In fact, while ion conductivity performance varied by up to fivefold depending on lithium ion mobility, the effect of pathway connectivity was limited to approximately a twofold difference. This provides a quantitative basis for interpreting performance variations that were previously difficult to explain due to the amorphous structure. Furthermore, the research team identified specific structural conditions that enhance lithium ion mobility. The higher the proportion of structures where four sulfur atoms surrounded a lithium ion, the faster the ion migration became. Optimal performance was achieved when the size of the internal void space fell within an appropriate range. Notably, excessively large voids actually hindered ion migration and degraded performance. This finding overturns the conventional wisdom that ‘lower density leads to higher conductivity’.

The results of this study can be directly applied to the design and manufacturing process of solid electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries. Simply controlling the internal structure by adjusting the electrolyte composition ratio or compression/molding conditions can improve ionic conductivity performance without requiring additional material changes, making it highly applicable in industrial settings. Furthermore, the analytical method proposed in this study can be extended to the development of various solid electrolyte materials. By pre-selecting high-performance candidate materials, it can dramatically enhance performance prediction and accelerate material development speed. This is expected to advance the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries in fields where safety and energy density are critical, such as electric vehicles and energy storage devices.

Dr. Byungju, Lee of KIST stated, “This research is significant in that it clearly identifies the key factors determining the performance of amorphous solid electrolytes.” He added, “As it presents design criteria enabling systematic improvement of material performance, we expect it to contribute to accelerating the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries.”

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KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://kist.re.kr//eng/index.do

This research was conducted as part of KIST’s major projects and the Materials Global Young Connect Project (RS-2024-00407995), supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Bae Kyung-hoon). The research findings were published in the latest issue of the international journal Advanced Energy Materials (IF 26.0, JCR field 2.5%).

Newswise — With the global shift toward renewable energy, solid oxide–based electrochemical devices have become essential for hydrogen production, energy storage, and fuel-to-electricity conversion. Traditional oxygen-ion–conducting cells require high operating temperatures, creating cost, durability, and material compatibility challenges. Protonic ceramic cells (PCCs) offer an alternative, operating efficiently at 300–600 °C and allowing the use of cheaper components, improved thermal cycling, and enhanced stability. Despite rapid progress in materials engineering, the fundamental mechanisms governing hydration, proton conduction, and electrode reactions remain insufficiently understood. These gaps hinder rational catalyst design and slow the translation of new materials into practical PCC devices. Based on these challenges, there is a critical need to deeply investigate proton behavior, interfacial chemistry, and catalytic mechanisms.

Researchers from Idaho National Laboratory and collaborating universities published (DOI: 10.1016/j.esci.2025.100437) a comprehensive review on August 2025, in eScience, detailing how diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) is transforming protonic ceramic cell research. The article summarizes recent breakthroughs in applying DRIFTS to oxygen electrodes, proton-conducting electrolytes, and hydrogen electrodes under realistic operating conditions. By capturing surface intermediates and hydration signatures, the review highlights DRIFTS as an essential technique for understanding reaction pathways, improving proton uptake, and guiding next-generation materials design for high-performance PCC systems. This platform was recently reported in a research article by the same group in Energy Environmental Science, providing the substantial evidence on how it is powerful in electrochemical system at elevated temperatures, specifically for PCC.

The review outlines how DRIFTS enables direct observation of surface species and dynamic reactions across PCC components. For oxygen electrodes, DRIFTS detects hydroxyl stretching bands associated with proton uptake, providing insights into triple-conducting materials such as PrNi₀.₅Co₀.₅O₃–δ, PrBaCo₂O₅+δ, and high-entropy perovskites. Doping-induced enhancements—such as Zn-stabilized hydration sites or Cs-driven oxygen vacancy formation—are revealed through stronger –OH peaks and temperature-dependent hydration behavior. DRIFTS also verifies steam-induced structural transformations, including monoclinic-to-cubic transitions and the emergence of multi-phase composites that improve catalytic performance.

For protonic electrolytes, DRIFTS distinguishes Zr–OH–Zr and Zr–OH–X environments, enabling researchers to identify proton trapping, dehydration kinetics, and dopant-dependent hydrogen-bonding effects in materials like Sc- and Y-doped BaZrO₃. The technique further detects carbonate residues that impair sintering, guiding optimized fabrication routes.

In catalytic applications, DRIFTS captures intermediates during CO₂ hydrogenation, methane reforming, and chemical-fuel co-conversion, identifying formates, carbonates, and CO adsorption species crucial to mechanistic understanding. Emerging operando DRIFTS configurations with applied voltage demonstrate the movement of surface protons during real electrochemical reactions, validating proton migration and reaction coupling at electrode interfaces. Collectively, the review shows how DRIFTS bridges fundamental chemistry with practical PCC engineering.

According to the authors, DRIFTS provides a uniquely powerful lens for understanding how PCC materials behave under realistic conditions. They emphasize that the ability to monitor hydration, proton uptake, and catalytic intermediates in real time offers insights unavailable from traditional characterization tools. The authors note that integrating DRIFTS with complementary methods—such as synchrotron-based IR, X-ray spectroscopy, and computational modeling—will further expand its impact. They conclude that establishing operando DRIFTS systems capable of applying electrical load represents a critical next step for unraveling the complex, surface-driven processes that dictate PCC performance.

The review underscores that advancing DRIFTS techniques will accelerate the rational design of PCC materials for clean-energy technologies. Improved understanding of hydration behavior and proton migration can guide the development of durable oxygen electrodes, CO₂-tolerant electrolytes, and carbon-resistant hydrogen electrodes. Insights into reaction intermediates also support catalyst optimization for hydrogen production, CO₂ reduction, methane reforming, and value-added chemical synthesis. As energy systems evolve toward efficiency and sustainability, DRIFTS-enabled mechanistic knowledge will help bridge laboratory discoveries and scalable PCC devices. Ultimately, the authors note that expanding operando DRIFTS capabilities will be essential for building the next generation of robust, high-performance ceramic energy systems.

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References

DOI

10.1016/j.esci.2025.100437

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esci.2025.100437

Funding information

This work is supported by the HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium, established as part of the Energy Materials Network under the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE); the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), under DOE Idaho Operations Office, under contract no. DE-AC07-05ID14517.

About eScience

eScience – a Diamond Open Access journal cooperated with KeAi and published online at ScienceDirect. eScience is founded by Nankai University (China) in 2021 and aims to publish high quality academic papers on the latest and finest scientific and technological research in interdisciplinary fields related to energy, electrochemistry, electronics, and environment. eScience provides insights, innovation and imagination for these fields by built consecutive discovery and invention. Now eScience has been indexed by SCIE, CAS, Scopus and DOAJ. Its impact factor is 36.6, which is ranked first in the field of electrochemistry.

BYLINE: Tracy Crane, Department of Chemistry

Newswise — Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have reported a breakthrough in nickel catalysis that harnesses a rare oxidation state of nickel that has proved challenging to control yet is highly valued for its potential to facilitate important chemical reactions.

The researchers, led by Liviu Mirica, a professor of chemistry at Illinois, explain in a recently published paper in Nature Catalysis how they have overcome a long-standing challenge in the field of nickel catalysis by developing a new method for synthesizing thermally stable Ni(I) compounds that opens new avenues for building complex molecules.

“We have developed shelf-stable Ni(I) compounds that could dramatically change the playing field of nickel catalysis. And that’s why we have an international patent for it, and we’re working with pharmaceutical companies and chemical vendors who want to license it,” Mirica said.

Nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions are widely used to form carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bonds, essential steps in producing pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and advanced materials. Traditionally, these reactions rely on two forms of nickel – Ni(0) or Ni(II) – as catalysts. Catalytically competent Ni(I) sources have remained elusive, but attractive.

“This form of nickel is highly desirable partly because it may open up new avenues of reactivity that have remained elusive with traditional sources of nickel,” said Sagnik Chakrabarti, co-author and former graduate student in the Mirica group who worked on the project with graduate students Jubyeong Chae and Katy A. Knecht.

Mirica said previous approaches by chemists have used specialized ligands that limit the generality of Ni(I) in a reaction the way one would use Ni(II) or Ni(0) sources. By tapping into the unique properties of organic compounds called isocyanides, the Mirica group has developed a simple system that gets the chemistry to work.

In their study, they demonstrated how the commercially available isocyanides function as simple supporting ligands, which connect to the nickel atom and form stable, powerful catalysts that can be used to snap molecular pieces together with exceptional speed and precision, opening an untapped chemical space for reaction discovery.

Their Ni(I) complexes are readily available, shelf-stable, easily prepared, and easily handled catalysts that are efficient for a wide variety of chemical reactions. This is unique because most Ni(I) complexes tend to be rather unstable, which has limited their use in catalytic settings.

“We were able to put Ni(I), ‘nickel one’, in a bottle so people can use it on a wider scale for various synthetic applications,” Mirica said.

In the study, the researchers demonstrate that these new catalysts work in several of the most important reactions used to make pharmaceuticals, electronics, advanced materials, and more. They report the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic activity of two classes of Ni(I) isocyanide complexes: coordinatively saturated homoleptic compounds and coordinatively unsaturated Ni(I)-halide compounds. One is slightly more reactive than the other.

Their complexes exhibit rapid ligand substitution and demonstrate exceptional performance in Kumada, Suzuki–Miyaura, and Buchwald–Hartwig cross-coupling reactions, according to the study, and notably, they exhibit chemo-selectivity, displaying their versatility.

According to Mirica and Chakrabarti this new class of catalysts could be a game changer in nickel catalysis. Chakrabarti said there could be new reactions that could be discovered by directly introducing Ni(I) into reactions.

“And in fact, in the paper, we do talk about a new class of reactions that we developed and that has not been achieved with Ni catalysts before,” he said. “It’s just a snippet of reactivity, not like a full vignette in itself, but it still shows that by synthesizing something that’s different from what’s out there, we can maybe coax unique reactivity.”

The research team also found that a tiny amount goes a long way. 

“The interesting thing that we found is that we can use very, very tiny amounts of the nickel catalyst, which is unusual in Ni catalysis, which typically needs higher amounts of the catalyst,” Mirica said.

The study also highlights the structural diversity of isocyanides and their potential as spectator ligands for reaction discovery. Their study showed that this chemistry is not limited to just the one class of isocyanide they used, the tert-butyl isocyanide, but it’s broadly applicable to other classes of isocyanides as well.

“So, the generality in using a bunch of different isocyanides bodes well for the future development of this chemistry,” Chakrabarti said.

Future work in the Mirica group will explore the fundamental structure and bonding of these unusually stable compounds, their new reactivity, and the differences in reactivity between alkyl and aryl isocyanide-supported complexes, which, according to their study, exhibit divergent catalytic behavior.

Original release:

Newswise — The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) hosted its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 15, 2025, gathering Senior Fellows from across the globe to mark the Institute’s 10^th anniversary and engage in discussions centered on strategic advancements in research and international collaboration. Under the leadership of Chairman Professor Serge Haroche, the meeting commenced with a heart-warming welcome to the new appointed HKIAS Senior Fellows: Professor Françoise Combes, Professor Étienne Ghys, Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins, Professor Alessio Figalli and Professor Sylvie Méléard. The Executive Director, Professor Shuk Han Cheng, presented a comprehensive review of the recent initiatives undertaken by City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and HKIAS, highlighting current news, activities, collaborative interactions with faculty members between CityUHK and the home institutions of our Senior Fellows and the significant achievements of Senior Fellows to underscore a decade of excellence.

As a key component of the HKIAS 10^th anniversary celebration activities, HKIAS organised a series of distinguished lectures and round table discussion. These activities, which showcased the cutting-edge research contributions of our Senior Fellows across multitude of disciplines, were supported partially by the Kwang Hua Educational Foundation. Their reception among students and faculty at CityUHK and various academic institutions across Hong Kong highlighted a profound interest and active engagement within the academic community. 

13 October: Professor Serge Haroche, an esteemed Nobel laureate in Physics, unveiled the intricacies of laser and quantum physics. On the same day, Professor Pierre-Louis Lions, the 1994 recipient of the Fields Medal, engaged the audience with a discourse on the intersection of mathematics and artificial intelligence (AI).

14 October: Professor George Fu Gao, a world-renowned virologist, delivered an insightful lecture on AI-empowered vaccine and antibody development. Additionally, Professor Mu-ming Poo, a distinguished figure in neuroscience and brain-inspired technology illuminated the audience on brain science and its implications for AI development.

15 October: Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins, President Emeritus of Lucy Cavendish College at the University of Cambridge, led a Round Table Discussion on Additional Models of Research Grant Funding, with Mr David Foster, Executive Director of the Croucher Foundation, as the online guest speaker.

Throughout the AGM week, interdisciplinary meetings and networking events were integral to fostering mentorship opportunities and collaboration among HKIAS Senior Fellows, CityU Faculty members, emerging researchers and students from various disciplines.

These events reaffirmed HKIAS’s unwavering commitment to fostering global collaboration and scientific excellence over the past decade. As the Institute celebrated its 10^th anniversary, we look forward to organizing further initiatives that will enhance the international profile of the science and engineering community at CityUHK and explore new frontiers in research and collaboration.

For more details on the celebration events, please visit HKIAS past events.

Newswise — In medicine, security, nuclear safety and scientific research, X-rays are essential tools for seeing what remains hidden.

The materials used to create X-ray detectors can be rigid, expensive and laborious to produce. But new research led by FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Biwu Ma is creating lower-cost, adaptable materials that could revolutionize X-ray detection technologies.

In two separate research studies, Ma’s group offers solutions to long-standing challenges in X-ray imaging. In the first study, published in Small, the team developed a new material that generates electric signals when exposed to X-rays, enabling direct X-ray detection. In the second study, published in Angewandte Chemie, the researchers used a related material to produce low-cost scintillators, which are materials that emit visible light when exposed to X-rays or other high-energy radiation.

“We have traditionally relied on inorganic materials for X-ray detection, but they are often rigid, expensive to manufacture and energy-intensive to produce, and they have many limitations,” Ma said. “What we have been trying to develop is a new class of materials that can address the issues and challenges faced by existing materials.”

In these studies, researchers created new hybrid materials composed of both organic and inorganic components, known as organic metal halide complexes (OMHCs) and organic metal halide hybrids (OMHHs). By tailoring the structures of these materials at the molecular level, the team enabled different forms of X-ray detection. This research represents a major step toward developing lower-cost, scalable and flexible X-ray detector technologies capable of overcoming key limitations of conventional inorganic systems.

Glassy OMHC films for direct X-ray detectors

Commercially available direct X-ray detectors are constructed using inorganic semiconductors, made from non-carbon materials, such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe). These materials contain toxic elements and require energy-intensive processing, making them expensive.

In the first study, the team demonstrated, for the first time, the use of OMHCs as a material for making direct X-ray detectors. These are materials composed of carbon-based semiconducting molecules that are bonded to metal halides, which are compounds made of metal and a halogen element. The specific OMHC compound developed by the team was created out of zinc, bromine, and a carbon-based molecule, enabling efficient X-ray absorption and electron transport within a single material.

Using a melt-processing approach, similar to melting plastics and allowing them to cool into a desired shape, the researchers transformed OMHC molecular crystals into amorphous, glass-like materials that can be molded into ready-to-use forms. They used these materials to make direct X-ray detectors that convert incoming X-rays into electrical signals.

Results

The resulting detectors produced strong electrical responses even at low X-ray exposure levels, making them more effective than detectors made from traditional materials. The team also evaluated the long-term stability of detectors made with the new material. After storing the detectors for four months under ambient conditions, testing showed they retained 98% of their initial performance.

OMHCs offer additional practical advantages. They are less expensive to produce than materials currently used in commercially available X-ray detectors because they can be synthesized from abundant and non-toxic raw materials. Moreover, the simple melt-processing method also makes device fabrication easier and more scalable than existing approaches.

“This is actually the first time these OMHC materials have been used to fabricate direct X-ray detectors,” said Ma. “They can be prepared in a low-cost way while delivering high performance. From a sustainability perspective, this new class of materials offer tremendous advantages over conventional materials.”

Bright, fast and flexible scintillators: X-ray components on fabric

In the second study, the team developed a new version of OMHH-based scintillators that exhibit high light yield and fast response, meaning they emit strong visible light and respond almost instantly when exposed to X-rays. OMHHs are similar to OMHCs, but a different type of chemical bond brings together organic components and metal halides into a single material.

The work builds on the team’s years of effort in the area since 2020, when they demonstrated the first ecofriendly OMHH scintillators. Earlier versions of OMHH scintillators relied on slow crystal growth processes that limited their size and flexibility, and their light emission faded relatively slowly. This latest generation of OMHH scintillators overcomes both challenges by eliminating the need for crystal growth and by dramatically speeding up the light response.

Results

By carefully designing the molecular structure, the team created a new amorphous OMHH material that shows fast response in nanoseconds. Unlike earlier versions of OMHH scintillators, in which light emission comes from metal halide centers and lingers for longer periods, the new material emits from the organic components of the material, exhibiting a faster response while maintaining excellent X-ray absorption and high light output.

Fast-response scintillators are especially important for advanced radiation detection and imaging. Their rapid light emission allows for clearer images, improved timing accuracy and reduced signal overlap, which are critical for applications such as medical imaging, security screening and real-time radiation monitoring.

The amorphous nature of the material also allows it to be easily processed into thin films and coatings. Using this approach, the team created fabric-based X-ray scintillators that can be integrated into clothing, enabling wearable and portable radiation detectors. These flexible scintillating fabrics represent a significant departure from traditional rigid detectors and open new possibilities for comfortable, adaptable and low-cost X-ray detection technologies.

Why it matters

While the two studies focused on different X-ray detection approaches, both used similar material design strategies to address major challenges in developing next-generation X-ray detection technologies.

FSU has begun filing patents to commercialize the technologies developed in Ma’s group and test them in real-world conditions. These advancements offer exciting and cost-effective solutions for next-generation X-ray detection technologies. Commercialization of these materials could benefit many fields, including medical imaging, security scanning, nuclear safety and more.

In addition to the team’s internal efforts, the group has collaborated with research institutions and industrial partners to explore diverse applications of these materials. These collaborations include Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) for photon-counting computed tomography, the University of Antwerp for luminescent dosimeters for radiotherapy, the University at Buffalo for pixelated X-ray imagers, and Qrona Technologies for X-ray microscopy technologies.

“The materials are very unique and were developed here at FSU,” Ma said. “We believe our materials and devices have tremendous potential to outperform existing technologies and address key challenges in the field.”

The research has been supported by federal funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research and Innovation and Technology Ecosystems. The lead authors of the two publications are Oluwadara Joshua Olasupo, who recently graduated with a Ph.D., and Tarannuma Ferdous Manny, a fourth-year graduate student. Collaborators from TU Delft and the University at Buffalo also contributed to the work. The research additionally involved high school students through the FSU Young Scholars Program.

Newswise — Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have co-developed a new way to precisely control the internal structure of common plastics during 3D printing, allowing a single printed object to seamlessly shift from rigid to flexible using only light.

In a paper published today in Science, the researchers describe a technique called crystallinity regulation in additive fabrication of thermoplastics (CRAFT) that enables microscopic control over how plastic molecules arrange themselves as an object is printed. The work opens new possibilities for advanced manufacturing, soft robotics, national defense, energy damping and information storage, according to the researchers. The team includes collaborators from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), the University of Texas at Austin, Oregon State University, Arizona State University and Savannah River National Laboratory.

The team demonstrated that by carefully tuning light intensity during printing, they could dictate how crystalline or amorphous a thermoplastic becomes at specific locations within a part. That molecular arrangement determines whether a material behaves more stiff and rigid, or as a softer, more flexible plastic — without changing the base material. CRAFT builds on that principle by allowing researchers to control crystallinity spatially during printing, rather than uniformly throughout a part.

“A classic example of crystallinity is the difference between high-density polyethylene —picture a milk jug — and low-density polyethylene, like squeeze bottles and plastic bags. The bulk property difference in these two forms of polyethylene stems largely from differences in crystallinity,” said LLNL staff scientist Johanna Schwartz. “Our CRAFT effort is exciting in that we are controlling the crystallinity within a thermoplastic spatially with variations in light intensity, making areas of increased and decreased crystallinity to produce parts with control over material properties throughout the whole geometry.”

A key challenge, however, was translating this new materials capability into practical manufacturing instructions that could be used on real 3D printers, according to LLNL engineer Hernán Villanueva. Villanueva joined the project after early discussions with Schwartz and former SNL scientists Samuel Leguizamon and Alex Commisso identified a missing link: a way to convert any three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) into the detailed light patterns needed to print parts using the CRAFT method.

Villanueva said he drew on prior work in a multi-institutional team focused on lattice structures and advanced manufacturing workflows. In that effort, he developed software that rapidly converted complex, topology-optimized designs into printing instructions by parallelizing the process on LLNL’s high-performance computing (HPC) systems — reducing turnaround times from days to hours or minutes.

Applying that same computational approach to CRAFT, Villanueva adapted the workflow to encode “changes in light” rather than changes in material. He was soon able to convert 3D CAD geometries directly into CRAFT printing instructions, cutting instruction-generation time from hours — or even a full day — down to seconds, making rapid design iteration and demonstration of the method practical.

“This work is a natural extension of the Lab’s strengths in advanced manufacturing and materials by design,” Villanueva said. “As part of the CRAFT effort, we have evolved a tool that connects materials science with computational workflows and advanced printing, enabling us to move directly from a 3D design to a part with spatially varying properties.”

The team’s method relies on a light-activated polymerization process in which exposure level governs the stereochemistry of growing polymer chains, researchers said. Lower light intensities favor more ordered crystalline regions, while higher intensities suppress crystallization, yielding softer, more transparent material. By projecting grayscale patterns during printing, the team produced parts with smoothly varying mechanical and optical properties.

The demonstrated ability to tune properties by changing a light’s intensity rather than swapping materials could significantly simplify additive manufacturing (3D printing), Schwartz explained.

“If you can get many different properties from one vat of material, printing complex multi-material or multi-modulus structures becomes much easier,” she said.

The researchers demonstrated the CRAFT technique on commercial 3D printers, fabricating objects that combine multiple mechanical behaviors in a single print. Examples included bio-inspired structures that mimic bones, tendons and soft tissue, reproductions of famous paintings, as well as materials designed to absorb or redirect vibrational energy without adding weight or complexity. Among the most striking demonstrations was the ability to encode crystallinity through transparency differences, according to Schwartz.

“Being able to visualize the differences easily spatially, to the point of generating the Mona Lisa out of only one material, was incredibly cool,” Schwartz said.

LLNL’s Villanueva said the work reflects the Lab’s long-standing investments in HPC and in integrating modeling, design tools and novel manufacturing processes. He added that future work could integrate topology optimization directly into the CRAFT framework, enabling researchers to optimize light patterns themselves — rather than material layouts — to achieve desired performance.

Because the process works with thermoplastics — materials that can be melted and reshaped — printed parts remain recyclable and reprocessable, an important advantage for manufacturing sustainability. The findings suggest a future where 3D-printed plastic components can be tailored at the molecular level for specific functions, bridging the gap between material science and digital manufacturing.

From an applications standpoint, Schwartz said the technology could have broad and near-term impact.

“Energy dampening and metamaterial design are the most exciting use cases to me,” she said. “From space to fusion to electronics, there are so many industries that rely on energy and vibrational dampening control. This CRAFT printing process can access all of them.”