Researchers at the Australian Research Council (ARC) Center of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (COEMinerals) have made a significant breakthrough in the recovery of critical and rare earth minerals and metals, advancing Australia’s sustainability goals and strengthening its strategic industries.
Led by Center researcher Professor Chun-Xia Zhao from the University of Adelaide’s School of Chemical Engineering, the Center has applied learnings from multiple scientific disciplines to mimic how a cancer-targeting drug finds cancer cells—but in this case finding a one-in-a-billion peptide molecule targeting a given mineral or metal.
“We knew nature contained molecules with selective binding properties,” said Professor Zhao. “By harnessing these properties, we were able to find precise peptide matches for specific minerals, each one fitting like a jigsaw puzzle.”
This advancement has the potential to unlock the equivalent of a “DNA code” for every mineral and metal on planet Earth and revolutionize mineral processing. It also heralds environmental benefits.
“Current mineral separation processes can require hundreds of stages. This is not only inefficient and costly but involves toxic solvents that harm the environment. In contrast, the Center’s new biomolecule approach offers selective and recyclable peptides as a single-stage process, reducing both complexity and waste,” Professor Chun-Xia Zhao added.
The biotechnology approach was tested on silver, which resulted in selective separation of silver particles from silica, a common waste byproduct, and achieving over 98% silver purity, with a recovery rate of more than 95%, as published in Advanced Functional Materials. Broader testing is now underway, with early indications that the peptide-matching approach offers promising performance, especially for rare earth minerals.
ARC Chief Executive Officer Professor Ute Roessner commented, “This achievement shows how government support for research can lead to real-world outcomes that boost innovation, improve productivity, and benefit Australia in the long run.”
Propelling the move from idea to industry impact, a license agreement is in place with Theia Metals Pty. Ltd. to progress the next stage of technology development.
Theia Metals CEO Russell J. Howard, an Australian entrepreneur, scientist and executive who is a pioneer in the field of molecular science, formally based in California, said, “Partnership and licensing to Theia Metals begins the process of investor and corporate mining partner-led development of this technology to the marketplace.”
The face masks worn and discarded during the COVID-19 pandemic have an uncertain fate. Their physical damage to the environment and potential to trap organisms in ecosystems are significant concerns, but these are not the only issues. New research shows that the surrounding environment can change the chemical nature of the mask materials just as those materials can change the surrounding environment.
Disposable face masks, composed of polypropylene, can degrade into micro- and nanoplastics under sunlight, producing reactive oxygen species, highly potent oxidizing agents that can oxidize other environmental components and trigger unexpected reactions.
Recent research conducted by engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Young-Shin Jun, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, highlights the multipronged pollution problem posed by discarded face masks.
Ping-I (Dennis) Chou and Zhenwei Gao, both Ph.D. graduates of the McKelvey School of Engineering, are co-first authors of the work published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. Their research started with a simple question: What happens to all those littered masks?
The study provides new insights about the significant chemical changes that occur when face masks are exposed to sunlight, water and trace metal ions.
Masks degrade into nanoplastics and produce reactive oxygen species, Jun said. These newly formed, highly reactive oxidizing agents interact with metal ions, causing fast formation (within a few hours) of manganese oxide on the plastic particles, Jun explained.
She added that this study evaluated manganese ions because of their prevalence in the environment and applicability to other highly sensitive trace elements.
“These chemical reactions can change the reactivity and transport of these mask materials,” Jun said, “and thus how the materials will distribute will also change—something that has been generally overlooked.”
The environmental impact of face masks is concerning given the 2020 estimate that 1.56 million face masks entered the ocean. Manganese and iron drive various biogeochemical reactions and affect the surface chemistry of those materials. The interaction between these “redox elements” and plastic materials can influence the fate of both the plastics and trace metal species.
“They could alter the fate of trace metals, and simultaneously, trace metals could alter the fate of microplastics,” Jun added.
Also, among their findings: exposure to sunlight is required for that ultrafast manganese oxide formation.
In the future, Jun and her research team will explore how organic components in aquatic environments affect the transformation and transport of pollutants from face masks. She is also interested in how biofilms of microbes interact with metal-coated nanoplastics and the role of different polymer structures in plastic waste in influencing the fate and transport of those reactive metal ions.
The face masks worn and discarded during the COVID-19 pandemic have an uncertain fate. Their physical damage to the environment and potential to trap organisms in ecosystems are significant concerns, but these are not the only issues. New research shows that the surrounding environment can change the chemical nature of the mask materials just as those materials can change the surrounding environment.
Disposable face masks, composed of polypropylene, can degrade into micro- and nanoplastics under sunlight, producing reactive oxygen species, highly potent oxidizing agents that can oxidize other environmental components and trigger unexpected reactions.
Recent research conducted by engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Young-Shin Jun, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, highlights the multipronged pollution problem posed by discarded face masks.
Ping-I (Dennis) Chou and Zhenwei Gao, both Ph.D. graduates of the McKelvey School of Engineering, are co-first authors of the work published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. Their research started with a simple question: What happens to all those littered masks?
The study provides new insights about the significant chemical changes that occur when face masks are exposed to sunlight, water and trace metal ions.
Masks degrade into nanoplastics and produce reactive oxygen species, Jun said. These newly formed, highly reactive oxidizing agents interact with metal ions, causing fast formation (within a few hours) of manganese oxide on the plastic particles, Jun explained.
She added that this study evaluated manganese ions because of their prevalence in the environment and applicability to other highly sensitive trace elements.
“These chemical reactions can change the reactivity and transport of these mask materials,” Jun said, “and thus how the materials will distribute will also change—something that has been generally overlooked.”
The environmental impact of face masks is concerning given the 2020 estimate that 1.56 million face masks entered the ocean. Manganese and iron drive various biogeochemical reactions and affect the surface chemistry of those materials. The interaction between these “redox elements” and plastic materials can influence the fate of both the plastics and trace metal species.
“They could alter the fate of trace metals, and simultaneously, trace metals could alter the fate of microplastics,” Jun added.
Also, among their findings: exposure to sunlight is required for that ultrafast manganese oxide formation.
In the future, Jun and her research team will explore how organic components in aquatic environments affect the transformation and transport of pollutants from face masks. She is also interested in how biofilms of microbes interact with metal-coated nanoplastics and the role of different polymer structures in plastic waste in influencing the fate and transport of those reactive metal ions.
She emphasized the importance of awareness, noting that although trash can be quickly moved out of sight, it should not move out of mind.
“Abandoning and forgetting plastics is not a solution. Plastics not only cause physical damage, but also introduce chemical changes into environmental systems,” Jun said.
“Better understanding of the reactions on the nanoscale interfaces between plastics and aquatic environments is key to addressing this challenge, and it could yield some unexpected benefits,” she said.
The chemical reaction principles discovered here could help in the development of sustainable energy materials. As they understand how manganese and polymers interact, it could inform the development of better supercapacitor energy-storage devices or electrode materials.
Her ultimate goal is to transform the knowledge that her team learned from studying trash to create valuable treasures, “especially energy materials that are environmentally benign and energy efficient,” Jun added.
A collaborative research team has successfully developed designer enzymes that exhibit both intrinsic and extrinsic functions by transplanting a synthetic trinuclear zinc center into a human cytokine.
The study is published in the journal Nature Communications. The research team was led by Associate Professor Yasunori Okamoto from the Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS) and the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS).
The researchers targeted the human macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a cytokine with a trimeric structure containing a central cavity ideal for synthetic trinuclear zinc center installation. To precisely arrange multiple metal ions within the protein, the research team combined geometric search algorithms and quantum chemical calculations.
Using systematic computational geometric searches, the team identified optimal amino acid arrangements capable of stably maintaining trinuclear zinc centers. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further narrowed down potential candidates.
X‑ray crystallographic analysis successfully confirmed the formation of trinuclear zinc structures as designed. The resulting designer enzyme demonstrated top‑tier hydrolytic activity among the designer metalloenzymes reported to date. Remarkably, the designer enzyme retained MIF’s original tautomerase activity, achieving dual functionality.
This research offers insights into designing metalloenzymes possessing a multinuclear metal center, which are typically found in natural metalloenzymes catalyzing highly challenging chemical transformations, potentially leading to green chemical transformation technologies.
Additionally, since cytokines are signal transducing molecules involved in various biological phenomena, this cytokine‑based designer enzyme holds promise as a life phenomenon‑responsive chemical tool.
A new study uncovers revealing insights into how plastic materials used in electronics are formed, and how hidden flaws in their structure could be limiting their performance.
Conjugated polymers are a type of plastic that conduct electricity and are used in optoelectronics, computing, biosensors, and power generation. The materials are lightweight, low-cost, and can be printed in thin layers onto flexible substrates, making them ideal for next-generation technologies.
An international team of scientists investigated a popular method for making the polymers called aldol condensation, which is praised for being versatile, metal-free, environmentally friendly, and scalable.
The scientists have published their results in Nature Communications, revealing that this method of synthesis introduces structural defects that could affect how well the polymer conducts electricity or converts heat into electrical energy in thermoelectric devices.
Senior author Professor Giovanni Costantini, from the University of Birmingham, commented, “The aldol condensation process can create defects in the polymer sequences, like missteps in a molecular dance, which can disrupt the flow of electrons through the material, reducing efficiency and reliability in devices. Our findings could have wide-reaching implications for the development of high-performance, flexible, low-cost electronics and help reduce reliance on rare or toxic metals in manufacturing.”
These defects, along with the secondary reaction pathways that produce them, have not been previously considered, primarily because conventional analytical techniques are unable to detect them.
The researchers used a powerful imaging technique called scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), combined with electrospray deposition (ESD)—allowing them to examine polymers at the molecular level—zooming in to see how the building blocks were connected, one molecule at a time.
They studied four different polymers made using aldol condensation and discovered two main types of defects:
Coupling Defects—These are like kinks or bends in the polymer chain, caused by the building blocks connecting in the wrong orientation or position. Sequence Defects—These occur when the order of the building blocks is incorrect, like having two of the same blocks in a row when they’re supposed to alternate. However, by adjusting the chemical design and purifying the building blocks before polymerization, the researchers were able to significantly reduce the number of defects.
One approach involved using aldol condensation to create small, well-defined molecules, which were then linked using a different method to produce much cleaner polymer chains.
“This is a major step forward in understanding how to make better-performing, more sustainable materials for electronics,” added Professor Costantini. “It shows that even green chemistry needs careful control to deliver the best results.”
An international team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Vanderbilt University, and Delft University of Technology has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) method that virtually stains images generated through imaging mass spectrometry (IMS). The research is published in the journal Science Advances.
This collaborative effort has achieved significant improvements in spatial resolution and cellular-level detail, all without requiring chemical staining. By leveraging an innovative diffusion-based generative model, the team can digitally produce images comparable to traditional histochemical staining while preserving valuable tissue samples.
Imaging mass spectrometry is a powerful tool capable of mapping hundreds to thousands of molecular species within biological tissues with exceptional chemical specificity. However, conventional IMS is limited by relatively low spatial resolution and a lack of cellular morphological detail, both of which are essential for accurately interpreting molecular profiles within the context of tissue structure.
In this collaborative study, the team introduced a novel diffusion-based virtual staining approach to overcome these challenges. Their method digitally transforms low-resolution, label-free IMS data into high-resolution brightfield microscopy images that closely resemble histochemically stained samples, specifically those stained with Periodic Acid–Schiff (PAS), which highlights polysaccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, and mucins in tissues.
Remarkably, the AI framework achieves this despite IMS data having a pixel size nearly 10 times larger than traditional optical microscopy images.
“This diffusion-based approach dramatically enhances the interpretability of mass spectrometry images,” said the corresponding author, Professor Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA. “It virtually introduces microscopic-level histological detail, bridging the gap between molecular specificity and cellular morphology, all without chemically staining the tissue.”
In blind tests on human kidney tissues, the virtually stained images closely matched their chemically stained counterparts, enabling pathologists to accurately identify critical renal structures and disease features directly from the virtual images.
Furthermore, the researchers optimized the noise sampling process during AI inference to ensure highly consistent and reliable staining results, potentially supporting both clinical and research applications.
This technique offers significant benefits for IMS-driven biomedical research and diagnostics, eliminating the need for labor-intensive chemical staining and complex image registration steps. It also preserves tissue integrity for further molecular analyses, thereby streamlining and accelerating mass spectrometry-based molecular histology workflows.
“We envision this approach will open new possibilities in spatial biology and clinical diagnostics,” added Professor Ozcan.
“By digitally generating high-quality histological images from mass spectrometry data alone, we can streamline workflows and potentially advance biomedical discovery.”
A research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Seoul National University has developed a new method to activate water-splitting catalysts at an oven temperature of just 300°C—much lower than the conventional furnace temperature of 800°C. This low-temperature process also boosts the catalyst’s oxygen evolution efficiency by nearly sixfold.
The study, led by Prof. Yong-Tae Kim and Dr. Sang-Mun Jung of POSTECH and Prof. Junwoo Son and Dr. Youngkwang Kim of Seoul National University, was published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Solar and wind power generate electricity that fluctuates with the weather. Hydrogen offers a solution to store this excess energy. Using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen allows the energy to be stored and later converted back into electrical power—enabling long-term large-scale energy storage.
However, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode of water electrolyzers requires a high overpotential due to the sluggish kinetics of its multistep electron-transfer process. Electrocatalysts are used to accelerate the reaction, and consequently, extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of highly active electrocatalysts for OER.
The team focused on a type of material called perovskite, which is stable and easy to modify. However, its relatively large particle size (>100 nm) limits its catalytic activity.
To overcome this, the researchers used a method called “exsolution,” where metal ions in the perovskite lattice migrate to the surface and form nanoscale active particles.
Normally, exsolution requires heating above 800°C for several hours. However, by applying a technique called bead milling, the researchers achieved the same effect at just 300°C. Bead milling grinds the material using microscopic beads, breaking it into fine particles and loosening its internal structure. This makes it easier for the metal ions to reach the surface.
The exsolved electrocatalyst generates oxygen nearly six times more efficiently than the original perovskite catalyst, while significantly reducing energy costs. This makes the method more suitable for large-scale production of hydrogen from renewable energy.
“This study marks a major step toward developing high-performance, low-cost catalysts for water electrolysis,” said Prof. Kim. “Controlling structure at the nanoscale will be key to improving system efficiency.”
A collaborative research team led by Professor Pan Feng from the School of New Materials at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has developed a topology-based variational autoencoder framework (PGH-VAEs) to enable the interpretable inverse design of catalytic active sites.
Their study, titled “Inverse design of catalytic active sites via interpretable topology-based deep generative models” and published in npj Computational Materials, introduces a novel integration of graph-theoretic structural chemistry, algebraic topology, and deep generative models, enabling the rational design of catalysts with targeted adsorption properties from performance objectives.
Designing catalysts with precise active sites is crucial for enhancing efficiency in energy and chemical processes. Traditional forward-design methods, based on DFT and machine learning, struggle with complex systems, such as high-entropy alloys (HEAs), due to their limited interpretability and data constraints. Graph-based representations of atomic structures, paired with persistent GLMY homology (PGH), a topological tool for asymmetric graphs, provide a new approach to analyzing and generating catalytic structures.
This interpretable inverse design framework provides a powerful alternative to trial-and-error methods in catalyst discovery. This work demonstrates that interpretable inverse design is no longer out of reach.
By linking topological descriptors with physical performance metrics, the framework provides a transparent pathway from theoretical modeling to practical catalyst synthesis. Such breakthroughs are especially crucial for HEAs and other structurally complex catalysts where trial-and-error experimentation is costly and inefficient.
In this study, the researchers introduced a physically interpretable inverse design framework that combines graph-theoretic structural representations with topological analysis and deep generative modeling. Using persistent GLMY homology (PGH), they extracted topological invariants, such as atomic connectivity and structural voids, from complex catalytic configurations, enabling a deeper understanding of how local and long-range structural features influence catalytic performance.
To capture these interactions, they designed a dual-channel representation system that separately encodes atomic coordination and distant elemental modulation effects. This data was then used to train a variational autoencoder (VAE) coupled with a gradient boosting regressor (GBRT), achieving highly accurate predictions of *OH adsorption energy, with a mean absolute error of just 0.045 eV, despite being trained on a relatively small dataset of around 1100 DFT samples.
Remarkably, the study uncovered a strong linear correlation between topological descriptors, particularly Betti numbers, and adsorption properties, providing rare physical insight into the structure–performance relationship. The model also successfully generated optimal active site structures in IrPdPtRhRu high-entropy alloys, identifying Pt/Pd as preferred bridge atoms and Ru as a distant regulator. Furthermore, it predicted ideal compositional ratios for different crystal surfaces, offering precise and actionable targets for experimental validation.
This study sets a new benchmark for interpretable, data-driven materials design. Though focused on HEAs, the framework can be extended to other catalysts and materials for energy, environmental, and industrial applications, offering a scalable path to rational, AI-guided material discovery.
The periodic table is one of the triumphs of science. Even before certain elements had been discovered, this chart could successfully predict their masses, densities, how they would link up with other elements, and a host of other properties.
But at the bottom of the periodic table, where massive atoms are practically bursting at the seams with protons, its predictive power might start to break down. Experiments to study the chemistry of the heaviest elements—especially the superheavy elements, which have more than 103 protons—have long been a challenge.
Despite using specialized facilities, researchers have been unable to definitively identify the molecular species they produce in experiments. This uncertainty has hindered progress in the field, since scientists have had to rely on educated guesses rather than precise knowledge of the chemistry being observed.
Now, researchers have used the 88-Inch Cyclotron at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to develop a new technique to make and directly detect molecules containing heavy and superheavy elements.
In a study published today in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, and the University of Alabama used the method to create molecules containing nobelium, element 102. It is the first time scientists have directly measured a molecule containing an element greater than 99.
“What is really exciting is that this opens the door to the next generation of atom-at-a-time chemistry studies—so looking at the chemistry of superheavy elements and asking whether or not they are in the correct positions on the periodic table,” said Jennifer Pore, scientist at Berkeley Lab and lead author of the paper. “I think we’re going to completely change how superheavy-element chemistry is done.”
The team’s setup also produced molecules containing actinium, element 89. This let them simultaneously study the extremes of the actinide series, the group on the periodic table that spans elements 89 to 103. Researchers recorded how frequently actinium and nobelium bonded with one or more water or nitrogen molecules, providing new information about how the actinides interact within the same experiment.
“This was the first time anyone’s ever done a direct comparison of an early actinide to a late actinide element,” Pore said. “We weren’t surprised by any of the chemistry results—they fit with what makes sense for the trend. But the fact that we could see the chemistry of these things we’re producing one atom at a time, and directly observe the molecular species, was really exciting.”
What was a surprise to the researchers was how effortlessly they made the nobelium molecules in the first place.
Unexpected molecules The original plan for the experiment went like this: The 88-Inch Cyclotron would accelerate a beam of calcium isotopes into a target of thulium and lead, producing a spray of particles that included the actinides of interest. The Berkeley Gas Separator would clear out the extra particles, sending only the actinium and nobelium to a cone-shaped gas catcher. Exiting that funnel at supersonic speeds, the gas would expand, interacting with another jet of reactive gas to create molecules. Electrodes would then speed those molecules into FIONA, a state-of-the-art spectrometer that could measure their masses and determine exactly what molecules had formed.
But before the researchers had a chance to inject their reactive gas, they noticed something unexpected: They were already recording molecules containing nobelium in their detector. Stray nitrogen and water, present in only minuscule amounts within FIONA, had combined with the nobelium atoms.
“We assumed that we would not be making molecules in the experiment before we wanted to,” said Jacklyn Gates, a nuclear scientist at Berkeley Lab and co-author of the paper. “The fact that we do is an important point, because no other atom-at-a-time chemistry setups have molecule identification availability, and they have always assumed that they don’t make molecules.”
Researchers previously thought that the stringent processes to clean the gas in their systems would leave an insignificant amount of water and nitrogen molecules behind, and that there wouldn’t be enough energy in their reactions to break those bonds and reform molecules unintentionally. But that wasn’t the case.
“For the types of molecules we’re making here, you don’t have to break bonds. The metal ions find the water and they stick together to form these molecular species,” Pore said. “There are potential implications for superheavy-element studies, because we made a lot of molecules even with our clean setup. With this result, researchers will have to think more carefully about what they’re actually making in their systems.”
Unexpected molecule formation could help explain previous conflicting experiments that studied whether flerovium, element 114, behaves like a noble gas (elements that tend not to interact with other materials because of the way their electrons are arranged). This discovery may also shed new light on the interpretation of recent studies on elements 113 and 115, and inform all future gas-phase studies of superheavy elements.
Fabulous FIONA After the unexpected discovery of nobelium molecules, the research team temporarily diverted from their original experiment. They ran their setup non-stop for 10 days, collecting nearly 2,000 molecules made of actinium or nobelium. That’s a large amount by heavy element chemistry standards, but still an incredibly small number. For comparison, a drop of water contains more than a sextillion (that’s 1 followed by 21 zeros) molecules.
“This is very different than the traditional chemistry most people think of, where you have beakers with lots and lots of liquid,” Pore said. “We’re working with extremely small amounts of material, far beyond what the human eye can detect. The ability to extract meaningful information from these tiny samples is a big deal. FIONA is much faster than anything that’s ever been done before, and more sensitive. This is important because everything we study is radioactive and only exists for a few seconds or less before it disappears.”
Sensitivity and speed are essential as researchers move to study the chemistry of heavier and heavier elements, which grow increasingly difficult to make and quicker to decay as they become more massive. While previous techniques were limited to molecules that lived for about 1 second, the team’s experimental setup can study ones that only survive for 0.1 seconds, and the experimenters have control of how long the particles are trapped at every stage of the process.
Previous experiments measured the secondary particles made when a molecule with a superheavy element decayed—but they couldn’t identify the exact original chemical species. Most measurements reported a range of possible molecules and were based on assumptions from better-known elements. The new approach is the first to directly identify the molecules by measuring their masses, removing the need for such assumptions.
“FIONA is really the secret sauce for the chemistry, and FIONA wasn’t even designed to do chemistry,” Gates said. “It was designed just to do mass measurements, so this is like a fun side hustle. We can do these chemistry studies with very little modification to the system, and we have this unique capability of identifying molecular species. There’s going to be a lot of new, exciting results coming out using this technique.”
Researchers plan to use their approach with several early superheavy elements, pairing the atoms with fluorine-containing gases and short-chain hydrocarbons to reveal fundamental chemistry at the bottom of the periodic table.
Better models, better medicine A better understanding of heavy and superheavy elements has several benefits. Experiments can check the chemistries of the elements, making sure they are grouped correctly on the periodic table and improving its predictive power. At the same time, researchers are also assessing models of the atom and the fundamental forces at play.
Odd chemical behavior in the heavier elements arises in part from “relativistic effects.” The large number of protons in the nucleus creates an intense charge that pulls on the inner electrons, speeding them up. As some of the electrons are sucked towards the center of the atom, they shield some of the outer electrons from the pull. These effects can cause an element’s chemistry to behave in unexpected ways. (The color of gold, different from the gray of so many other metals, is one such example.)
“The electrons behave very differently in elements where you have these large relativistic effects, and the effect is expected to be even stronger in the superheavy elements,” Pore said. “This is why they might potentially not be in the right place on the periodic table.”
There are also practical applications, particularly in improving radioactive isotopes used in medical treatment. One of great interest is an isotope of actinium (actinium-225), which has shown promising results in treating certain metastatic cancers. However, the isotope is difficult to make and only available in small quantities every year, limiting access for clinical trials and treatment. Scientists are just beginning to understand its chemistry.
“People have been forced to skip the fundamental chemistry step to figure out how to get it into patients,” said Pore. “But if we could understand the chemistry of these radioactive elements better, we might have an easier time producing the specific molecules needed for cancer treatment.”
Researchers at Texas A&M University have uncovered how to more efficiently convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful fuels and chemicals, offering a potential boost to both environmental sustainability and local economies.
Led by Dr. Manish Shetty, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, the study, published in the journal Chem Catalysis, explores how certain metals interact with a material called SAPO-34.
“This work is about understanding how to control what we make from CO2,” said Shetty. “If we want to create fuels and chemicals from CO2, we can. But we need to know how to mix the ingredients in the right way.”
A circular economy Rather than focusing solely on emissions, Shetty’s work emphasizes the idea of circularity, reusing carbon as a resource.
“We’re not just thinking about CO2 as a greenhouse gas,” he said. “We’re asking, can we build a circular economy where carbon is reused instead of wasted?”
The implications extend beyond environmental benefits. By enabling selective production of fuels or chemicals, this research could help industries reduce costs, improve efficiency and adapt to changing market demands.
“If someone comes to us five or 10 years from now and says, ‘I want to make propane from CO2 and hydrogen,’ we want to be able to say, ‘Pick this metal, pair it with this catalyst, and here’s how to put them together,'” he said. “It’s like a toolkit for designing the chemical industry of the future.”
That future could include not just large-scale refineries, but also smaller, decentralized systems that benefit rural communities.
“For example, the paper and pulp industry or ethanol refineries often emit high-purity CO2,” Shetty explained. “Right now, that CO2 is just released. But what if we could use it to make propane for local heating or cooking? That’s a way to turn waste into value and support local economies.”
The perfect recipe Traditionally, chemical engineers say that bringing different catalyst components closer together improves efficiency. But the team’s study challenges that assumption.
“Historically, the idea was that the closer you bring two components, the better the reaction,” Shetty said. “But we’re finding that’s not always true. Sometimes, being too close lets the metal interfere in ways that hurt performance.”
The process involves two main steps: first, converting CO2 and hydrogen into methanol using metal oxides like indium oxide, zinc-zirconium oxide or chromium oxide. Then, methanol is transformed into hydrocarbons using SAPO-34, a material with acidic sites that help drive the reaction.
But when these materials are placed very close together, at the nanoscale, something unexpected happens. The metal ions can migrate and swap places with the acid sites in SAPO-34, changing how the reaction unfolds.
“People often think about how molecules move in these systems, but not how the metals themselves move,” Shetty explained. “We’re showing that these metals are not innocent bystanders. They move, and that movement has consequences.”
Findings The team found that indium ions tend to shut down the desired chemical pathways, leading mostly to methane, a less useful product in this context. Zinc ions, on the other hand, promote the formation of paraffins, which are more fuel-like. And chromium showed little interaction, allowing the reaction to proceed as intended.
“This research is about process intensification—making things more economical, using smaller reactors, saving on capital and operating costs,” Shetty said. “But it’s also about giving us control over what we make and how we make it.”
As the researchers continue to refine their methods, they hope to offer practical solutions that transform scientific discovery into real-world application.
“This is just one step in a larger journey,” Shetty said. “But it’s a step that brings us closer to a more sustainable and economically resilient future.”
