Dear all
Again a very busy month!
Lots of news as usual in the field of critical materials: an interesting review about tin (the “forgotten” critical material), some insight about the innovation projects funded by DOE to accelerate US self sufficiency on the full supply chain of critical materials, a good “zoom” on life cycle losses on rare earth supply chains for wind and solar energies and of course the new China 5 years plan with the highlight on 2 aspects: Aljazeera on electronics and Bloomberg on Hydrogen.
Further on the scientific front with a variety of innovations such as redesigning battery collectors and adding plastic to make them lighter, safer, and lower cost while improving overall battery performance (Stanford), using 3D printing to make stronger and greener cement (Berkeley), engineering Vanadium Oxide at room temperature to make more buildings energy saving (Melbourne), adding new catalysts for enhancing degradability of polypropylene (Tokyo) ... and facing the new frontier of electronics with a view on 2 faces: the new 5nm chip that seems to bring little benefit in cost and speed... and the opportunity to use quantum dot transistors for a flexible alternative to conventional electronics (LA National Lab/UC Irvine)
On the sustainability front, we picked 2 examples: one simple but with high impact on using less materials - the launch of I Phone 12 with less accessories and smaller packaging - and one more complex ... and very smart - plastic wastes as raw materials for high quality graphene at Rice University.
10 of our great Start Up Alumni are also in the news this month with new product launches (FredSense - Canada, Momentum Technologies - USA, Nawa Technologies - France, Rein4CED - Belgium), key technical trials (Cyprus Materials - USA), new cooperation with major group (Imagine Intelligent Materials - Australia) or statutory press coverage (Citrine Informatics - USA, Mallinda - USA, Opus 12 - USA)
